Eyes Of Red
by Hiita-chan
Summary: As a celebrity, Seto Kaiba finds it hard to trust anyone. You might even go as far as calling him cynical. So then why does he find it so easy to trust this spikey-haired runt? Little does he know that there's more to this boy than what meets the eye. Prideshipping
1. Kaibaman!

TO YOU WHO ACTUALLY CLICKED ON THIS: THANK YOOUUUU!

This story is going to seem kind of silly at first, but I promise you it gets better! So please bear with me!

Warnings: This story will contain boy x boy yaoi goodness. Don't like, don't read.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!. Never have, probably never will. *tear*

Enjoy! ;3

* * *

"You'll never get away with this!" a woman yelled to a group of men surrounding her. She struggled to lift herself from the floor she was sitting on, but the ropes tied around her made it impossible to do so.

A click echoed through the old, worn-down warehouse, signifying the cocking of a gun. The owner of the readied machine chuckled roughly and, raising his weapon at the woman, said, "I believe I already have. _Maiden_."

"Think again, Dartz!"

The man turned to find out who dared interrupt and started at the sight. A well-built man stood in the doorway of the building. He wore a long, sleeveless white coat with a red shirt and black pants underneath and a helmet that seemed to represent a dragon, covering his entire face save his nose and mouth. Long, red hair trailed behind him as he fearlessly strode closer.

"Kaibaman!" one of the thugs yelled, taking a step back.

"Kaibaman!" the woman echoed with a look of relief on her face. In a flash Kaibaman threw a card towards the blue-haired brute named Dartz, knocking the firearm from his hand. The card rebounded back and he gracefully caught it.

He then swiftly held the card above his head and yelled, "I ask that you lend me your strength-Curse of Dragon!" With a flash of bright light a golden dragon appeared, wings spread and ready. "Show them your power! _Hell Flame_!" he ordered. The dragon bellowed out a roar and promptly obeyed; a stream of flames making contact with the group. Shrieks of horror filled the air mixing with a howl of, "Curse you Kaibamaaaaan!"

Once the smoke had finally cleared, the crowd of ruffians were left scattered across the floor whimpering and moaning and some even whining for the mothers. When he was sure that they had all been defeated, Kaibaman relaxed and with a smirk said, "Hn. It seems that you all didn't take too well to my 'warm' welcome." After a moment of basking in his glory, he dashed over to the still tied up and rather dazed looking woman. "Maiden!" he yelled on his way there. As soon as he got to her, he began untying her from her restraints and looking her over to be sure that she wasn't harmed.

"Kaibaman…" she repeated, blue eyes wide with astonishment. Finally, the ropes around her fell and freed her arms.

"Are you alright Maiden? Did they harm you?" he asked in concern.

Slowly, she shook her head saying, "No…no I'm fine." Aside from her long, white hair being slightly tangled and frizzed and her tan colored dress being torn at the end, she seemed to be unscathed. A small smile suddenly graced her face and she said, "It seems that you've rescued me once again, Kaibaman."

"I was nearly too late. If I hadn't of gotten here in time…" he trailed of, lowering his head. The maiden shook her head once more.

"But you did." She stated.

"But if I had arrived sooner, I could have prevented Dartz from-" he began, raising his head.

"It is in the past, Kaibaman." she interjected. "You can go on and on with 'if's' and 'could have's' but that won't change what has already happened. The only thing to do now is to move forward and look towards the future in hopes that it will be bright." she finished placing her small hands on either side of his face, lightly touching his helmet.

"…Yes." Kaibaman agreed as the maiden began pulling his headgear off of him, revealing his sharp, strong facial features. His red hair was discovered to not be his own, but merely an extension of the helmet. His natural hair was a chestnut brown, neatly combed in place. He stared into the maiden's deep blue eyes with a pair of his own as the two of them began leaning closer together.

Closer…and closer… and closer…until…

"CUT!"

The white haired woman groaned and backed away from their "almost kiss".

"What now?" she snapped in the direction of the voice.

"It's not anything you've done, Kisara." A man walked over to the two of them with a look of aggravation. "It's him!" he said pointing with an accusative finger. "You too tense looking Kaiba! You're about to kiss the beautiful Maiden with Eyes of Blue whom you've just saved from the clutches of evil! Not about to get smacked in the face with a wrecking ball! So stop acting like it!" he yelled. Then, turning to leave the set, added, "Everyone take five. I'll be back."

The two of them watched the middle aged man as he left. Once he was gone, Kisara stood to take her leave as well, but not before adding, "Come on Kaiba, get your shit together."

When she had disappeared as well, Kaiba let out the breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding the whole time and massaged the temples of his forehead. That man…just who did he think he was? Kaiba had a right mind to fire the guy. He was lucky that the new episode of "Kaibaman" needed to be released so soon or he would have done it right then and there. Once this episode aired though, he was done. He didn't care that this would be the sixth director he would be firing. He wouldn't tolerate such behavior. A competent director who knew his place- that's all he asked for. So why were they so damn hard to find?

Ugh. He felt a headache coming on.

As for that girl…Kaiba gripped the bridge of his nose in exasperation. One minute she's got your back, and the next she's using it as a protective shield to guard against any possible threat to her perfect image. Not only that, she switches from being your best friend to your worst enemy in a matter of seconds for no apparent reason at all. She was an untrustworthy bitch, that's what she was.

If he could have it his way, he would've kicked her out on her ass a long time ago. Sadly, however, she was a main character in the show and then he would be left with many unhappy fans complaining about her disappearance. After all, it would be nearly impossible to find another girl with features like hers.

'God, I need some coffee.' he thought after a few moments. 'And an aspirin.'

* * *

TADA!

…

It gets better I promise.

I can't decide whether or not I want this Fic to be written strictly from Kaiba's point of view, or if I should alternate between Kaiba and Yami. (They meet in the next chapter by the way! :3) So tell me what you think!

That means please review!

And thanks for reading!


	2. Once In A Blue Moon

Here it is! Chappy numero dos!I decided that I'd just narrate everything from Kaiba's perspective instead of switching back and forth like I'd considered before. It'll leave some mystery in the story!

…I think.

Warnings: Some slight Yami OOCness. Quite a bit on Kaiba's part too in my opinion. Soorrryyy. It's not THAT horribly bad though. Hopefully. Let me know if it is! I'll straighten it out in the next chappy if so!

Enjoy! ;3

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Seto Kaiba was a busy man. On top of being the main protagonist on one of Japan's top TV shows, he ran a multi-million dollar company alongside it. He went day after day after day of stress inducing work: making business deals with some of the most powerful men in Japan, signing contracts, fixing mistakes his employees made in their latest software, firing said employees, keeping their stocks in check, memorizing his lines for the newest episode of "Kaibaman", fighting with the screenwriter about stupid lines in the script, threatening to fire the screenwriter, memorizing the new lines in the script, planning meetings with men that could profit his business so extremely that he would never have to lift another finger in his life, being rejected by such men, firing the next employee he sees out of spite, _AND_ raising his little brother in the process. It was enough to make your brain burst and deflate until you're nothing but a dead-eyed zombie.

There were, however, these rare occasions when Kaiba would find himself with a little spare time.

These occasions came once in a blue moon, and Kaiba made sure to take full advantage of them. Usually they were used on spending time with his smaller sibling, Mokuba. Sometimes he would help Mokuba with his homework or with any problems he might be having, but the two of them typically played a game of Mokuba's choice.

Sometimes, however, on an even rarer occasion, Kaiba would have a little spare time with no Mokuba around.

And thus, resulting in a very bored Seto Kaiba.

Sighing, Kaiba leaned back in his chair. He'd checked through his e-mail a good few times just to find out that there was nothing there for him to take care of. He was so concentrated on his work earlier that he must have blown through everything already. Mokuba was hanging out with some friends right now, so doing anything with him was out of the question. And he had already asked his secretary if the recent bug in their software had been fixed and if the certain someone who caused it had removed their belongings from their desk yet. Both she answered in a polite, "Yes, Mister Kaiba." God, how he always hated her always too well-mannered tone. She was one hell of an employee though. He leaned forward again and clasped his hands together, setting his elbows on his desk.

Well, this was different.

The feeling of having nothing to do was very foreign to Kaiba, and he wasn't sure if he liked it. Stumped, he opened the top left drawer of his desk and retrieved a small, blue notebook with "SCHEDULE" written on the front in silver letters. He flipped through the pages until he got to the one most recently written in. His eyes scanned the page checking off things that he'd already completed.

'Did that, finished that yesterday, that's being checked over, did that this morning…' he thought.

"Meeting discussing new duel disk designs at 5:30 p.m." he said aloud. Kaiba glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of his laptop to see that it was only a little after 3:30.

This was very different indeed.

He had nearly two hours to himself. Two hours to do whatever he pleased. 120 minutes to do something that he actually _wanted_ to do. Kaiba leaned back once more and rubbed his chin absentmindedly.

'What _DO_ I want to do…?'

* * *

The more he thought about it, the more he thought that it was a terrible, terrible idea.

In his rush to decide on something to do, Kaiba thought that it would be nice to take a walk.

Outside. In public. Where people could see him.

Of course, yes, he was wearing a disguise. He wouldn't dare do something like this otherwise. But the last time he attempted something like this, he was quickly discovered and the next thing he knew, he was hiding for an hour from a swarm of paparazzi.

Kaiba shook his head thinking about it.

Granted, the walk _was_ nice. Just walking casually without a real destination was a nice experience for the CEO. He rather enjoyed taking in all of his surroundings for once. As he did, he noticed that quite a few of his surrounds had a similar theme. A theme centered around him in fact.

"Get the Kaibaman complete set for $59.99!" one sign read.

"KaibaCorp. Duel Disk for sale!" another read a few blocks down.

"Kaibaland almost completed!" "Kaibaman comics for sale!" "Kaibaman action figures!" Kaiba almost visibly cringed at that one. It wasn't that he didn't like them; he just didn't find the thought of small children slobbering all over a figure made in his image very appealing. Not to mention that he'd seen the heads of some of them pop off. He'd have to remember to get the model fixed.

"Seto Kaiba and Kisara White more than friends?"

Kaiba abruptly stopped and glared death through his dark sunglasses at the newspaper stand. Why the hell would someone even insinuate such a malevolent thing? The sheer thought was ludicrous. The two of them weren't even friends. It was a stretch to even call them acquaintances! He detested the woman for Pete's sake! Kaiba looked away from the paper, realizing that it wasn't going to drop to its knees and beg for forgiveness under his gaze for its mistake. Attempting to gather his composure, he strode away. Whoever published that article was getting sued, big time.

Fuming, Kaiba made his way over to a bench and, after inspecting it to make sure no animal had dumped its waste there, sat down. He looked around after a moment, suddenly feeling a little unsure about his disguise. He wore some jeans, a black, zip-up hoodie, a dark grey and white hat, and sunglasses. He slowly raised his hands up to his hood, and pulled it up over his hat-just in case. For all he knew someone already recognized him and ran off to spread the word. With his luck, that probably was the case.

What a really terrible, terrible idea.

Kaiba pulled out his phone from his back pocket to check the time. It was 4:22; he still had about an hour to kill. He glanced around again as he returned his electronic device back to his pocket.

'I really need to stop being so paranoid.' he thought as he bent forward and placed his elbows on his thighs, propping his head up with his hands. He shifted his legs, the late-autumn leaves crunching beneath his feet.

It was then that he felt the bench he sat on move slightly. He snapped his head up and slowly looked over to his left to see that someone was now perched on that side of the bench. It was a boy who looked about in his teens; he had on a high school uniform signifying so. Kaiba's eyes instantly shot up to his porcupine-like hair, which was a bizarre mixture of blonde bangs in the front and black spikes with magenta tips in the back with a few stands of blonde defying the laws of gravity with the rest. He then noticed his eyes, which were a deep, rich crimson color. It was a strange combination, and Kaiba idly wondered why someone would style their hair in such an abnormal way. He didn't notice he was even staring at the boy until he turned his head to look back at Kaiba and after a moment said,"…Hi there."

Deciding not to respond, he looked straight ahead and tried to pretend like he didn't hear him. The boy simply shrugged his shoulders and slumped back into the bench. Kaiba stood all of a sudden, figuring that it would be better if he left before the kid got suspicious. He began walking away and thought about just heading home. After all, Mokuba was probably there by now.

By the time he got about halfway down the street, he suddenly heard a voice behind him yell, "Hey! Wait!" He looked back and saw the porcupine boy jogging towards him. Straightaway, Kaiba assumed the worse and started walking faster.

He knew. The kid knew who he was and was about to expose it.

Rounding the corner, he caught another glimpse of the boy and saw him making a mad dash towards him.

Uh oh.

After seeing that, Kaiba broke out into a full on sprint. No way in hell was he going to be caught. He really didn't feel like being drowned by a wave of questions and cameras at the moment. So paying no heed to those in his way, he dashed down the street in hopes of losing his pursuer.

"HEY YOU!" porcupine boy shouted.

Ignoring the attempt at getting his attention, he turned another corner.

"ACK!" he heard from behind. Out of curiosity, he turned around and saw that porcupine boy had slipped and fell on his face. He was about to just give in to the inevitable and go back to help the poor guy up, but as soon as he stopped running, the kid jumped back up and bellowed out, "HEY GUY IN THE BLACK JACKET! I'M TALKING TO YOU!", angrily.

Hm. He seemed kind of upset.

Well, this was just great. Now there were a bunch of people staring at him. Some were pointing and whispering too.

What a really terrible, awful idea.

Panicking, Kaiba started running away again, not missing the now wide-eyed looks he was receiving. Hot on his trail again was Mr. Porcupine, yelling, "HELLOOO!?" They were attracting more and more attention by the minute. He wished the kid would just shut up and go away.

Kaiba gathered all of his remaining strength and shifted into high gear, hoping to leave the boy in his dust. To his horror and dismay, he noticed that at some point he had entered into a neighborhood and that right in front of him was a cul-de-sac. Damn.

When he reached the rounded end of the street he finally slowed to a stop, giving in. He turned back around to see Mr. Porcupine do the same. The kid hunched over, trying to regain his breath.

"…Alright, you got me. Now what do you want?" he questioned, thankful that no one was outside at the moment.

"Why…why…were you…running?" Mr. Porcupine huffed out. "

Why? Kaiba didn't understand. The teen knew who he was, and he obviously wanted something. Why wouldn't he have tried to avoid being caught? He was about to question the boy, but Mr. Porcupine spoke before he had the chance.

"I was…I was just trying to…" He took a few deep breaths and then stood up straight. "…I was trying to return this!" he said, holding out a small, leather case. "Your wallet, right?" he finished, clarifying.

Kaiba just stood there for a while, trying to piece things together. He followed him all this way just to return his wallet? There was no way. There had to be more to it than that.

"…What do you want kid?" he scowled, slowly taking his wallet.

"What do you mean?"

Kaiba opened his mouth to reply, but quickly shut it when he heard the sound of footsteps in the distance. The two of them turned their attention to the direction it was coming from and as soon as it started getting louder, Kaiba started searching for somewhere to duck for cover. Of course the paparazzi would find him. It was only a matter of time. In fact, he was surprised that it had taken them this long.

"What's goin' on a 'here!?" he heard a woman say somewhere to the left of him. "What'd y'all think yo' doin'?"

"Excuse me ma'am, but have you seen Seto Kaiba around here? You know, the man that plays as Kaibaman?"

"KAIBAMAN!?" Mr. Porcupine nearly screamed.

"Yes, we have sources saying that they saw him run down this neighborhood. Have you seen him?"

"NO I 'AIN'T SEEN NO SETA KABA NO WHERE 'ROUND A' HERE, NOW GET THESE DOG ON CAMARAS OUTTA' MAH FACE FOR I CALL THE COPS!" the rather peeved of lady roared.

"No need to raise your voice ma'am-"

"GO ON, GET!"

He heard a sigh and the sound of footsteps fading away. He finally started breathing again. He didn't know who that crabby lady was, but he silently thanked her current bad mood.

"Did you here that!? Kaibaman was-" A moment of silence passed. "Hello? Sir?" Kaiba moved a few leaves away from his face and saw Mr. Porcupine looking around with a confused expression. "Um…why are you in a bush?"Kaiba looked at the teen for a minute, then stepped out of the dark green, leafy camouflage without a word. The kid looked back at him, but seemed to just brush off the oddness of it when he shook his head and said, "Anyway, did you hear what they said? They said Kaibaman was over here! As in OVER HERE, over here!" he exaggerated with a large grin. "Do you think he might be close by still? Maybe if we look around we can find him-" he began excitedly, but cut off with a sudden shiver. It was then when Kaiba noticed that practically the entire front side of him was dripping wet.

Hesitantly, he asked, "What happened?"

"Hm?"

"Why are you drenched?"

"Oh. Slipped in a puddle."

"…While you were running after me?" he pressed, feeling a small amount of guilt start to nibble on his insides.

A nod.

"…I see." he replied, feeling a bit at fault.

'No. Why should I feel guilty? It's his own fault for chasing after me in the first place.' he tried to convince himself, swallowing the guilty feeling down his now quite parched throat; willing it to go away. He looked down at the wallet still in his hand. '…Oh yeah. He was returning my wallet." He looked back up at Mr. Porcupine. 'But the only reason he bothered giving it back is because he wants something from me. No one just does something for you without wanting something in return.' He narrowed his eyes.

"So do you think he's still around?"

"…Huh?"

"Kaibaman! Do you think he might still be around here!? I've always wanted to meet him!" the boy chirped.

Kaiba gawked at him. Did he seriously not know? How could he not know? Why else would he have bothered returning his wallet? He wouldn't have done it otherwise; he wanted something from Kaiba out of it.

…right?

"Hey…uh…" he motioned to the boy.

"Yami." he assisted.

"…Yami. Why did you return my wallet to me?" He needed to get this straightened out right now.

"Why?" Kaiba nodded. "Well…because I saw you drop it."

"…And?"

"And what?"

"What's your other reason?" He wouldn't be fooled. No one did that sort of thing for that reason alone.

"Mmm…because if I had left it there, someone would have stolen it? And I'm sure that that would've been a real pain…"

"And THAT'S your reason?"

"Um, uh…yes?" he answered, as if he was afraid he had answered incorrectly.

Kaiba continued to stare at the kid, not sure what to think. No way was that it. There had to be more to it than that. Maybe he _did_ know who he was, and was just pretending that he didn't to get his sympathy and get him to do something in return. That had to be it…

"Well…" Yami started, shifting under Kaiba gaze. "I'm going to see if Kaibaman is still around. Maybe if I'm lucky he hasn't gone too far." He promptly turned, and began walking away.

He didn't know. He legitimately had no idea who he was. He had rushed after Kaiba just to return the wallet that he'd seen him drop. Not only that, but he had fallen into a freezing puddle on the way and _still_ ventured on to give him the wallet, soaking wet and all. If he stayed out much longer he'd probably get sick.

'Damn it…I hate owing people debts…' he thought acidly.

"…Hey, kid, wait!"

* * *

I really hope the OOCness isn't too bad.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

Please review and give me some feedback! It would be most appreciated!


	3. Identity

Finally! Chapter three is up!

I really meant to have this up earlier but…well…life happens sometimes. It hasn't been TOO too long, so I guess it's alright.

Enjoy! ;3

* * *

'Way to go Kaiba. Way to keep a low profile.'

Kaiba tugged his hat down over his face as a black 2013 Cadillac XTS Limousine drove toward him. He looked around and saw that the vehicle had caught the attention of quite a few people, and it wasn't even halfway down the road yet. He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for its arrival. He glanced over to Yami and saw him slightly gaping at the automobile as well.

When the limo finally slowed to a stop in front of the two of them, Kaiba wasted no time in throwing the door open and having a seat in one of the six chairs. He looked over at a wide-eyed Yami and said, "You getting in or what?" Yami jumped slightly and then scrambled over and into a chair opposite to him, closing the door behind him.

The vehicle jerked a little as it began moving forward again. Yami scanned the interior and whispered, "Whoa…cool." He turned to Kaiba and said, "You must be very wealthy, huh?" Kaiba didn't answer and twisted to gaze out of the window. Yami went back to admiring the stylishness of the vehicle with a hum of approval here and there.

After he'd stopped Yami from running off, he'd offered to drive him home since it was so cold out and he was soaking wet. Yami declined, saying he didn't plan on going home quite yet. Still feeling like he owed Yami, a feeling he absolutely detested, he blindly asked him over to his house to get out of the harsh elements. Yami had given him a look at first, (which didn't really surprise him; he was rather confused as to why he would offer such a thing too) but agreed nonetheless (which confused him even more).

And so here they were: in _his_ limousine- normally reserved for people of high importance- on their way to _his_ private mansion- a place he rarely ever invited anyone save for the sake of a business deal. Kaiba pinched the bridge of his nose and idly wondered if he should stop the limo and tell the kid to hit the road.

"Whoa." Kaiba looked over to see what Yami was admiring. "Is this a TV?" He nodded and looked back out of the window. "Cool!" Kaiba fought to suppress a smirk. The reaction he got when people saw how loaded he was always amused him greatly. Even if he did feel like throwing the person out of the window and telling them to get lost. Of course, he couldn't actually do that. He was the one who invited the kid, after all.

Kaiba watched as the limo stopped in front of a gate with "KC" plastered on the front in silver letters and the chauffeur got out. The man flipped a metal box open mounted on the wall next to the gate and punched in a code. Once the gate began to slide open, he returned and began driving onto the private property. Behind the gate was a great mansion. The exterior was an off-white color with many windows lining the top and bottom. The roof was dark taupe, as were the large double doors being guarded by two large men in black suits and dark purple ties.

Kaiba waited for a reaction out of Yami, but when he didn't hear one he lifted his head up. Yami hadn't said anything because he was too busy gawking out of the window. His eyes were about as big as saucers as he gazed in awe. When the limousine came to a stop, Kaiba opened the door and stepped out, holding it there for Yami to do the same. When he didn't, Kaiba raised an eyebrow and said, "Come on." Yami blinked a few times at him, then climbed out as well.

"Y-you live here?" Yami sputtered out as they walked up some steps. Kaiba didn't respond and glared at the guards when they gave him and then Yami some strange looks.

"…Sir." One nodded in welcome, struggling not to stutter under his glower. Kaiba ignored the gesture and trudged inside once they opened the doors for the two of them.

"Wooow. This is amazing!" He heard Yami say behind him as they made their way down the hall. The walls were painted a deep green adorned with the occasional picture or decoration. About halfway down the hall was a table standing on the polished wooden floors with a black glazed porcelain Chinese vase that had golden dragons going around it.

Once they reached the end, he shoved another pair of doors open to reveal a large, lavished room. Toward the center of the room was a glass table surrounded by a cream colored couch to the left of it, a love seat the same shade in front of it, and a fire place to the right. Underneath the table and furniture was a huge, dark gray rug with various designs woven into it. Behind the couch was a small area with two book shelves filled completely up with a variety of books and files. Across the room was a spiral staircase leading up to another hallway and a balcony to view the room from a higher altitude. A chandelier hung high over the center of the room, glass glittering from the reflection of the crackling fire.

"Oh, wow." Yami gasped. Kaiba walked over to the center of the room, Yami trailing behind him.

"Sit." he commanded. Yami obeyed and plopped down on the couch. He looked down at Yami to see his still damp and rather dirty clothes and, after a moment, stated, "I'll be back." He climbed up the staircase and began walking down the additional hallway very similar to the first one. He needed to find something for Yami to change into; he couldn't very well sit around in the state he was in. Nothing Kaiba had would fit him. The runt was so short, if it wasn't for the uniform he would have mistaken him for being in middle school. Figuring out what he should do, Kaiba veered off to the left into another hallway and strolled into a room to the right.

He walked past a full-sized bed covered in a green and white blanket to a large wooden dresser and opened the second drawer. He moved a few items around and pulled out a dark red robe with white accents on the sleeves and hood. 'This'll do." he decided, shutting the drawer and walking out. Yami would have to settle with wearing his little brother's robe for now. Hopefully Mokuba wouldn't mind.

Once he returned back downstairs he shoved the article of clothing in Yami's direction saying, "Here. Go through there," he gestured toward a doorway to the right of the spiral staircase, "and turn left and you can change into that there. I'll have your clothes washed and dried for you afterwards."

Reluctantly, Yami took the robe. After inspecting it somewhat, he looked up at Kaiba and cracked a small smile.

"Okay. Thank you." he responded, standing and doing as Kaiba had instructed.

Once he heard the door shut behind Yami, Kaiba let out a sigh. 'Why the hell am I doing this again?' he thought. 'Because I owe him one? Yeah, I owe him _ONE_. I already let him ride in my limo and see my private mansion. This is going too far now.' He rubbed the back of his neck deciding, 'Well no going back now. I already offered. Damn.'

A minute or so had passed when Kaiba heard the door reopen. He spun around to see Yami walking back over, now with the robe tied around him hanging down past his knees. He stopped in front of the glass table and gently set a massive pile of keys and key chains connected to a black and red lanyard. He looked back up at Kaiba, holding his school clothes. Kaiba grabbed them from him and began walking out from the way they had come in. "Stay there." he said before shutting the doors behind him.

Upon returning, he found Yami sitting on the love seat playing around with the chess set perched on the table. Kaiba walked over and sat down on the couch with an exhale. As silence settled between the two of them, Kaiba found his eyes wander over to the many key chains set on the table. One in particular caught his attention the most; a chibified version of the Dark Magician pointing its staff forward hung there. It was a duel monster that only showed up twice in the show, but was still popular with many fans nonetheless. This thought brought up a question that Kaiba asked before he had the chance to stop himself.

"How old are you, Yami?" Kaiba almost face-palmed. Yeah, invite a kid you just met over to your private mansion, have him change into a robe, then ask how old he his. If that didn't seem shady, he didn't know what did.

"15." he answered matter-of-factly, shocking Kaiba. The guy didn't seem at all skeptical about any of this. Collecting his composure, Kaiba pressed on to what he was actually curious about.

"Well, don't you think you're a little old to like Kaibaman?"

Yami looked up from the pawn he'd been moving back and forth and answered, "Not really. Besides, the fan base for it has really started expanding. Sometimes I find grown men who watch the show and play the game religiously."

It was a true and rather sad fact that Kaiba knew about all too well. On more than one occasion has he found a middle-aged man begging him for his autograph and a chance to duel him. It was a little frightening to be honest. The game, he could understand. It's a good strategy game that really makes you think. It's recently become a rather popular game. So much so that even people who haven't even seen the show get into it and enter tournaments. But the show? Past a certain age, the show should just seem downright silly. Kaiba was the main character in the show and _he_ thought it was silly.

Kaiba was about to comment, but a yell coming from the hall distracted him.

"Nii-sama!"

A boy came busting into the room with long, wild, black hair and the white Domino Middle School uniform on.

"Nii-sama! I'm ba-" he stopped right where he was. His large blue-grey eyes trailed over to were Yami sat. "…Who the heck are you?" he asked with an accusative finger. "And why are you wearing my robe?"

Kaiba took the liberty of explaining what happened before his little brother blew a gasket. After a few minutes of clarifying, with the occasional snicker from Mokuba, he looked back over at Yami and raised an eyebrow.

"So you just…went with him like that? Without asking anything about him first? For all you know he could be a child predator! And you just walked right into his sick little trap!"

Kaiba choked on his spit.

"Mokuba!" he snapped in disbelief. His own brother…

"Speaking hypothetically of course." Mokuba quickly added.

After a few seconds passed, Yami turned to Kaiba and asked, "…Are you?"

"NO!"

After his fit of laughter was over, Mokuba spoke up again. "So Yami, do you know who this is?" he asked, motioning over to Kaiba.

"Well…I have an idea…" Yami answered fiddling around with his fingers. Mokuba smirked evilly.

"Well, Nii-sama?" Kaiba sighed heavily.

"Mokuba, please…"

In one swift motion, Kaiba pulled the hood off of his head along with his hat and lifted the pair of sunglasses off of his face. A large grin spread across Yami's face and his eyes grew about double their size.

"I knew it!" He jumped up from his seat. "You're Kaibaman!"

"Kaibaman isn't my actual name you know." he pointed out as he turned away and scowled at Mokuba's sly expression.

"Aw man, if I had known I'd meet you, I would have brought my deck with me!" he continued.

"So you like Kaibaman, huh?" Mokuba began. Yami nodded excitedly. "Is that sooo…" he glanced at his older brother. "If that's the case, then-"

"Mokuba." Kaiba interrupted. "Was there something that you needed from me?" he asked impatiently. Mokuba looked at him, then began making his way over to his older brother.

"Well _geez_ Nii-sama. I haven't seen you all day! Maybe I just wanted to come in here and say 'hi'!" he said with big puppy-dog eyes.

"Hi. Now what do you want?" Kaiba pressed, undeterred. Mokuba pouted.

"Here." He handed Kaiba a black thumb drive with "KC" written in small letters on it. "This is yours. I grabbed it accidentally this morning. I guess I thought it was mine." He snatched the device from Mokuba, inspecting it.

"Did you let anyone see it?" he asked.

"No, why?"

Kaiba took a breath. "This has a lot of information on it that a lot of rivaling companies want, Mokuba. You could've ended up in a lot of trouble had anyone seen you with it."

"Oh…" Mokuba rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I didn't know." Kaiba set the drive down on the table and then leaned back in the couch.

"Good thing you didn't lose it." he blew out, relieved.

"What kind of stuff is on it?" Mokuba and Kaiba looked over to a still mildly grinning Yami.

"The important kind." Kaiba answered vaguely and left it at that. There was a knock at the door and a young woman stepped into the room, holding a small pile of neatly folded clothes.

"The clothes that you ordered to be washed are finished, Mister Kaiba." she said.

"Wow, that was fast." Yami said, recognizing the blue uniform. He hopped over to the woman and took the clothes from her. She bowed and left.

"I guess I'll go change in there again." Yami said, leaving the room.

…

"Soooo, Nii-sama-"

"_No_, Mokuba."

Mokuba pouted for the remainder of the time they were alone.

When Yami came back, his grin had faded away in favor of a more serious look. "Um…what time is it?"

"Adventure Time!" Mokuba chirped.

"5:03." Kaiba informed.

Yami nodded and said with a sad smile," Well as awesome as it was to meet you Kaibaman, I'm afraid I have to go."

"Do you need a ride home?" Kaiba could've smacked himself for that. If he drove the kid home he'd be late for his meeting.

"No," Yami answered to Kaiba's relief, "I can get home from here, but thank you." With that, Yami scooped up his mass of key chains and stuffed them in his pocket, letting the lanyard hang out. "Well, goodbye Kaibaman. I look forward to seeing you again."

"What about me?" Mokuba asked. Yami snorted.

"Yes, I look forward to seeing you again too, Mokuba."

Kaiba watched Yami as he left, and once he was gone he glanced at his watch again saying, "I should be heading off too. Try not to burn the place down while I'm gone, Mokuba."

"I make no promises."

* * *

Thanks for reading!

Please review!


	4. On The Table

This is a rather short chapter…like, under 700 words short. But I've been busy, surprisingly, and since I haven't posted in a while I figured 700 words was better than 0!

Soooo…

Enjoy! ;3

* * *

There simply weren't enough swear words in Kaiba's vocabulary to describe the frustration he was feeling. He vaguely remembered using "fuck" a few times, but the word was hardly able to express how utterly pissed the CEO was.

Kaiba shoved papers around on his desk for about the umpteenth time in the last hour, picking up and putting down random items that he was sure he'd checked under before but had decided to look again just in case what he was looking for magically appeared underneath one of them. Nope. Still not there. Damn.

He shoved the drawers to his desk open, filing through the loads of paperwork neatly aligned in each of them. Still not in there either. Kaiba groaned and slammed the last drawer closed, the metal rattling in response as if shivering in fear at Kaiba's now boiling-over anger. He shot up out of his seat, slamming his hands down and yelled out to no one and everyone at the same time, "WHERE THE HELL IS IT!?"

He stood there for a while in silence, waiting to see if anyone would answer his question. Of course, no one did. He was standing in an empty room after all.

'I need to calm down.' He attempted to convince himself. 'Just have to try and remember what I did with that damn thumb drive.'

He thought back to the previous day before he'd gone to that meeting. He was talking with Yami…then Mokuba came in…

Kaiba pinched the bridge of his nose. 'God, how did I forget!? Mokuba handed the thing to me! Then…' Kaiba grabbed the long, black coat hanging on his chair and his metal briefcase and exited the room.

It was on the table. It had to be.

He stepped into an elevator on the other side of the hallway, steel doors sliding close making little noise as they did so, seemingly not daring to distract the man that had entered in any way. Kaiba ran his long, slender fingers through his hair, strands of chestnut brown falling perfectly back into place.

How could he forget? That piece of plastic, no matter how small it was, was immeasurably important. It had information on it that could quite possibly ruin Kaiba if it was given to the wrong person. There were newly improved designs of duel disks along with the layout of Kaibaland and codes to its security systems on it.

But it would be alright. It was just on the glass table in his living room.

Kaiba marched out of the elevator toward the exit door, stopping briefly to tell his secretary he was leaving early. Once in his limo he barked out an order for the driver to take him home and leaned back in his seat, reflecting on the fact that he'd forgotten such an important thing. He had been so distracted thinking about how strange that boy Yami was yesterday…

Kaiba shook his head, attempting to get rid of the thought. He had more pressing matters to be concerned with. Matters much more pressing than the fact that the boy didn't want anything in return for his help or that warm feeling he'd gotten when he saw Yami's face lit up like a tree on Christmas day when Kaiba had revealed his identity to him.

'Table. The thumb drive is on the table.' he forced himself to repeat in his head rather than wonder about the teen. Once he reached his destination he speedily climbed up the stairs to his mansion and through the doors, not bothering to wait for them to be opened for him.

It was on the table. All he had to do was go get it to make the anxious feeling he was having go away.

He shoved the doors open to the room and walked over to the glass table he'd forced himself to think about for the past twenty minutes. He stopped halfway there, jaw dropped.

It wasn't on the table.

* * *

Again, sorry about the super tiny chapter.

That aside, what do you think happened to it? Meaning: Review and take a guess!

Thanks for reading!


	5. Gone

Yay! A longer chappy! I'll try and update sooner than I have been, I promise! I'll do my best to post a new chapter every other day, but I make no promises. (I'm a slow writer/ thinker, sorry.)

Well, here you go! Let's see if your guess was right as to what happened!

Enjoy!;3

* * *

'Well isn't this just great.' Kaiba thought bitterly as he sat down. He glanced at the now cluttered room around him before lowering his head and rubbing his forehead. Like a bee in a field of dead flowers, Kaiba had searched hoping to find the one thing he needed – but to no avail.

'How did this happen?' he questioned himself. Where in the world could the damn thumb drive have gone? He'd checked the entirety of his living room, office, and bedroom. He'd asked his employees if they had moved it, making sure to threaten their jobs if they lied. When none of them fessed up he considered firing one of them out of sheer anger, but in the end decided against it and simply stormed off.

He'd passed by Mokuba's room a few times on his rampage, each time contemplating going in there and checking too, but each time talking himself out of it figuring Mokuba wouldn't appreciate the sudden invasion of privacy. He would just wait until his brother got home from school and simply ask him; he had no reason to lie.

And so he sat there, awaiting the arrival of the only person he could think of that might know where the device would be.

Finally, after a half an hour of waiting, Kaiba heard the double doors to the room burst open. "Nii-sama! I'm ho-" The raven-haired boy did a double take. "…What happened? It looks like a tornado came through here!"

Ignoring the remark, Kaiba said, "Mokuba. Did you mess with my thumb drive?" Mokuba furrowed his eyebrows.

"No…I thought I gave it back to you yesterday?"

"Have you seen it since then?" Mokuba shook his head.

"That was the last time I saw it…" Kaiba ran his hand through his hair for the second time. "Is it missing Nii-sama?" Mokuba asked, sounding a little worried. "I thought you took it with you. It was gone after you left."

Kaiba looked at Mokuba "It was?"

"Yeah…maybe you left it in your office-" Kaiba shook his head.

"Already checked. It isn't there either."

"Oh…" Mokuba lowered his head. After a moment, he popped it back up saying, "Well I'm sure it's around here somewhere! I'll go check my room. Maybe it got in there somehow." And with that, he hopped upstairs to do just that.

A few minutes passed before Kaiba headed up as well to his own room. Once there he began straitening it back up. He wasn't worried about the living room being a mess, that's what maids were for. His room was a different story. There were so many folders and letters and papers scattered everywhere right now that he didn't trust anyone else to organize them properly but himself. So, with a sigh, Kaiba grabbed the tan folder closest to him.

xxXxx

"Finished." Kaiba declared aloud. It had taken a while, but everything in his room was finally back in place. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the digital clock sitting on the dark mahogany nightstand next to his king sized bed covered in white sheets with a dark cobalt blue blanket thrown across it. The clock flashed "4:47" in light blue numbers. Hm, he'd been in there longer than he thought.

He stood up from the crouching position he'd been in and threw his hands in the air as he stretched briefly, his back popping a few times as he did so. Kaiba made his way out of his room and turned right, stepping into the long corridor. He walked passed a few doors before stopping at one on his left. He knocked on it three times, then listened as he heard footsteps coming from the other side. The door swung open to reveal a reluctant-looking Mokuba.

"Did you find it?" Kaiba asked.

"…No…"

Kaiba nodded in knowing; he didn't think it would be there. He saw a look of guilt on Mokuba's face, so he added not to worry about it. It wasn't his fault. Once Mokuba finally responded with a nod of his own, Kaiba decided to leave the conversation at that and went back downstairs into the living room. Good, it was clean now.

Kaiba grabbed his briefcase that went untouched next to the table, clicked it open, and took a laptop out of it. Since he had no idea where his thumb drive had gone, it was only obvious that he'd need to take some extra precautions. The duel disk designs that were on it weren't a big deal. The new models were already made and tested; they'd be in stores in less than a week. No one would be able to build a replica in that amount of time and claim it as their own. No, what Kaiba was worried about was the security system codes to Kaibaland that were on the small device. With that, someone could easily break in and hack the system. He really didn't need that. The amusement park was set to open in three weeks. A fatal blow like that could prolong that time period by a good few month which would lead to many unhappy fans. And that was something Kaiba always tried to avoid, for unhappy fans would lead to unhappy parents of those said fans, a.k.a unhappy potential customers which would lead to less revenue for the company meaning money would be lost and – oh god, he felt a headache coming.

Kaiba was brought out of his thoughts by the loud "DOOOO" start up sound his Apple Macbook Pro made. No time to alleviate the throbbing in his brain at the moment. He had to e-mail the Kaibacorp security team and have every code changed and secured. Just as he finished typing in the login password, he heard the doors open from across the room. A slightly chubby maid stepped into the room and stood in front of the half opened doors, hands at her sides.

"Mister Kaiba?" she said.

"What?" he snapped, not in the mood to talk.

"There's a boy outside who says he knows you and urgently needs to speak with you. He said his name is Yami."

Kaiba looked up at the maid for a split second, then fixed his gaze on the little circle icon on the computer screen with the white silhouette of a person above the skinny rectangle with asterisks in it indicating he'd typed something there. Finally, he said, "Let him in." as he hit "Enter" on the keyboard.

Great. Just when Kaiba really needed to focus, **HE** had to show up. Yes, he could have easily told her to make the kid go away; he _should_ have told her to make the kid go away. But he didn't, and he didn't quite understand why. And Kaiba hated not understanding things.

The doors opened once again, but Kaiba didn't bother to look up this time. He didn't want to give away the fact that he'd been thinking about the teen as much as he had been. Besides that, he really needed to get those e-mails sent out. Kaiba typed away mercilessly on the black keys of his keyboard as he waited for Yami to speak up. When he didn't, Kaiba figured he must have thought he wasn't paying attention, so he said, "What is it?" Although it came out a little harsher than intended.

A few more seconds passed before Yami said, "I'm guessing you noticed that your thumb drive went missing." Kaiba immediately stopped typing and snapped his head up. He was a bit surprised to see that Yami's face had a quite a few bruises on it and that it was swollen pretty badly below his left eye. His hair was a bit disheveled and his clothes were quite dirty too. Again.

"What happened to you?" Kaiba blurted out before he could stop himself. He needed to work on that.

"Well…"

Oh wonderful. He could tell this would be a long story. He should've kept his mouth shut.

"Yesterday, right before I left, I grabbed your thumb drive by mistake along with the rest of my things. I only noticed this morning, so I'd planned to give them back to you after school-"

"Hand it over then." Kaiba commanded.

"I would, but I'm afraid there's a small problem with that…" he trailed off.

"…You lost it." Kaiba finished for him, disgruntled.

"Not exactly 'lost it' per se…"

"Then what?!" Kaiba growled. Yami didn't look at all daunted or even surprised by Kaiba's sudden outburst.

"After I left school," Yami began, "I was trying to find out how to get here. I really couldn't remember which way to go, so I asked a few people if they knew. Now that I think about it that was probably a stupid idea, but I did. I didn't really get much of an answer out of anyone though. The closest thing I got to an actual answer was that most rich people live over on the west side of Domino. So, I decided to give it a try. On my way over here these guys randomly jumped me, which I thought was pretty strange. I didn't expect people to do that sort of thing over on this side. Anyway, they jumped me. I tried to fight back but there were a lot of them. Then they just stopped out of nowhere and started running away. At first I thought someone had called the police or something, but when I looked around I didn't see anyone. I also noticed that they didn't take my wallet or anything either. When I finally realized that they'd taken the thumb drive, it was too late. They'd gotten into a car and drove away. In the end I decided that I should probably try and find you anyway to let you know what happened. It was a good thing the street name was familiar to me or I don't think I would have ever found you."

Kaiba sat there for a while, letting his thoughts simmer a little. After a short while he finally asked, "What?" Yami stood there without saying anything, probably contemplating whether that was a rhetorical question or not. "You let it get stolen?!" he bellowed. Yami looked down for a moment, but then met Kaiba's gaze, unwavering.

"I'm very sorry." Yami responded with an unreadable expression.

This was unbelievable. He should have seen this coming, really. This is what he got for letting the little brat come to his private mansion. For all he knew, this was just an act and Yami had taken the devise on purpose so he could sell it to some opposing company. Kaiba nearly shook with rage.

"Do you even realize how important that thing is?! Do you know what could happen if someone gets that kind of information!? And you let it get **_STOLEN_**!"

"I said I was sorry Kaibaman-"

"AND MY NAME, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, IS NOT KAIBAMAN!" he anything but whispered.

Silence settled around the two of them as Kaiba tried to get his anger under control. He took a few deep breaths, then pointed to the doors.

"Leave." He ordered.

"Kai-"

"OUT." He said in an authoritative tone. He didn't bother to watch as he heard Yami slowly walk out of the room and quietly shut the doors, or he might have leaped across the room and strangled the runt.

Quickly, he finished the e-mail he had started and sent it to every member of his security team. Unsatisfied, he shut his laptop, put it away, and got up. He didn't trust the imbeciles to do it themselves. He'd need to go back to Kaibacorp and make sure it was done properly.

Still seething with fury, he grabbed his coat and briefcase and left. Hopefully it wasn't too late.

* * *

Oh, Kaiba. You should really keep a better eye on your possessions! Especially potential company crushing possessions!

Thanks for reading!

Please review! It would make me very happy!


	6. It's A Date

Alrighty! Here's the next chapter!

They're in the month of November by the way. In case anyone was wondering.

Enjoy! ;3

* * *

"So we're absolutely, positively going to open it on the 19th, right?"

Kaiba cracked a small smile at his younger brother who looked at him with hopeful eyes.

"Yes Mokuba. Kaibaland's grand opening date is set in stone." A large grin spread across the young boy's face. It had been a week since the little "incident" with Yami, and since then Mokuba had been worried about whether the amusement park would open on the day that they had planned. Honestly, Kaiba was a bit worried as well but he would never let it be known. Besides, he didn't have anything to _be_ worried about. All codes had been changed, all systems had been checked and re-checked for any sort of virus, and all security systems had been upgraded. On top of all of that, he had employees keeping watchful eyes on everything. Still and yet, nothing was found. No bug, no attempt at hacking, not even an unrecognized file. He supposed that the fact that nothing seemed to be out of order is what made him worried. Someone after that kind of information didn't do nothing with it.

Kaiba tapped his index finger on the desk he was sitting at. Just who was after that information? And why? He pondered this for a while, but simply shook his head and redirected his attention back to what he was doing. There was no point in thinking too much about it. He was able to secure the park before whoever had that thumb drive had the chance to screw with his company. What was done was done; time to focus on the here and now.

He continued pounding on the keyboard of his laptop, finishing an e-mail to engineering manufacturers he'd hired about a problem they were having with one of the rides. Apparently the "KaibaCoaster" was having a malfunctioning problem and wouldn't start properly at times. Kaiba just wrote that they'd better have the problem fixed by next week or there would be dire consequences. Sure, he could just go there and fix it himself, but he didn't see why he should have to do everything. _He_ hired _them_. They needed to do their job, not run to Kaiba every time they found a problem.

'Hm…"KaibaCoaster".' he thought. Nope, that name needed to change. There was already the KaibaDome. And the place was named "Kaibaland" for pete's sake. Aside from that…well, the name just sounded stupid. With that thought, he wrote that he wanted the name changed to "Blue Blaze". He also added that he wanted the "must be this tall to ride" cardboard cutout of himself as Kaibaman changed like he told them to. Some kind of accident happened a few days ago that ended up with black paint being splattered all over the board, meaning a new one needed to be made.

Once he was finished with the e-mail and had it sent, he closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair.

"I can't wait until Kaibaland opens." Kaiba turned his roller-chair around to look at his brother across the room lounging on Kaiba's bed with a history textbook in his lap, a pencil in his hand, and a few pieces of scattered about. "It's going to be so awesome." Mokuba continued.

A loud growl was heard coming from the boy's stomach, who quickly brought his hand up to the source of the noise. "I'm hungry." he stated.

"I noticed." Kaiba glanced at the clock on his nightstand, which said "5:03". "I suppose we could eat dinner a little early if you want."

"OH! Let's go to Burger World!"

"…Why?"

"I like burgers."

"So then we'll just have the cook make you one."

"But Nii-samaaaaaaa! I want a Burger World burger!"

Kaiba sighed. "Did you finish your homework?" Mokuba nodded. "Alright, fine." It's not like they went there very often anyway. So, despite the greasy food, he'd let Mokuba eat there if he wanted. Kaiba wasn't going to eat that stuff though.

xxXxx

"How long before the paparazzi find us you think?" Mokuba spoke up as he and Kaiba strolled down a sidewalk. They were in a limo but they figured it would attract too much attention for a limousine to park right in front of a fast food restaurant, so they got out down the street and walked the rest of the way.

"Who knows?" Kaiba replied. He didn't bother to wear a very good disguise this time. He simply wore a green hoodie with white cuffs and a white zipper and some denim jeans. Sure, he had the hood over his head, but that was hardly enough to be unrecognizable. Then again, there weren't many people out currently, so maybe he'd get lucky.

He looked over at Mokuba who had his hands folded together behind his back as he trotted happily next to Kaiba. The boy wore a gray long sleeve shirt with fire brick red sleeves and dark gray jeans. Kaiba allowed a smile to grace his face for a moment, but quickly covered it when he noticed Mokuba had stopped walking.

"Oh, hi Yami!" he chirped.

Kaiba looked forward and saw the spikey-haired kid standing a few feet away from them. He hadn't spoken to or seen the teen since he had ordered him out of his home a week ago. Thinking back to that day made Kaiba's blood begin to boil.

"Hello Mokuba, Kaibam-!mmmmmmmmmmm…" he interjected himself with a hum, realizing his mistake. "…Kaiba." he finished quickly. "What are you two up to?" he questioned towards Kaiba. Kaiba remained silent.

"We're going to Burger World!" Mokuba filled the silence by answering on his brothers behalf. Kaiba noticed that smirk on his brother's face and dreaded whatever scheme he had swirling through his mind. "Would you like to join us?"

Oh hell no.

"I'd love to,"

Oh god.

"but I don't think your brother would like that very much."

Damn right he wouldn't.

"Besides, I really need to get home anyway." Yami continued. Mokuba pouted, making Yami chuckle. "Sorry. I wouldn't mind hanging out some other time though."

"I know! Didn't you say you wanted to duel Nii-sama?" Mokuba brightened up.

"I did, didn't I?" Yami said, sending a smirk Kaiba's way. "What do you say Kaiba? Care to partake in a friendly little duel?" Kaiba scoffed at him, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Dueling you would be a waste of my time." he stated in a rather condescending tone. Yami's once playful smirk turned much darker.

"Is that so?" Yami matched Kaiba's patronizing statement with one of his own. "Then let's make things a bit more interesting, shall we? You win, and I'll leave you alone for good; you won't have to worry about me bothering you in anyway ever again."

Kaiba did like the sound of that. The boy had caused him too much trouble, and no way did Kaiba want an incident like _THAT_ to happen again.

"Uh…wait a minu-" Mokuba began.

"But if I win…" Yami interrupted him. He suddenly pointed at Kaiba dramatically with his index finger. "You have to sign my Kaibaman poster!"

…

"Tell me you're not serious." Kaiba said.

"I am." Yami brought his hand back down to his side. "I know that you don't particularly like signing anything, except for maybe a good business contract, so this is the only way I can think of to get it from you."

Kaiba glowered at him. The fact that he was right about that pissed him off to no end.

"So, what do you say? You can back down if you want, of course, if the thought of having to sign a piece of paper is simply too much for you." he said with a half glare, half smirk.

"Tomorrow." Kaiba said through clenched teeth. "At 4:00."

"It's a date!" Mokuba piped up. Yami chuckled at the boy's sudden outburst and nodded in acknowledgement. Without another word, he strode past the two of them and down the street.

'Damn him.' Kaiba thought viciously. If he hadn't of pissed him off so much, Kaiba would have just told the twerp to fuck off. But instead, now he had this to deal with. Oh well, it was Yami's funeral. Kaiba began marching angrily toward the giant cartoon burger sitting on top of a building with "Burger World" in red letters in front of it.

"Nii-sama!" Mokuba yelled, catching up with him. "You're not really going to make him leave you alone forever when you win, are you?"

"Damn right I am." Kaiba replied acidly.

"But Nii-samaaaaaaa!" he whined. "Oh, can't you just forgive him already!? You know he didn't mean to lose your thumb drive!"

He frowned at Mokuba, but remained silent.

"I'm serious! You know, he seems like a really nice guy! _AND_ he likes Kaibaman!" Kaiba rolled his eyes to the sky. Not this again.

"Mokuba, I'd appreciate it if you stayed out of my love life."

"That's just it Nii-sama! You _have_ no love life!" Kaiba face-palmed. He couldn't believe that they were really having this conversation.

"Enough, Mokuba."

"No!" The boy stopped in front of the restaurant doors with his hands on his hips. "You're 18 Nii-sama! There are so many people out there who DREAM that they could be with Seto Kaiba! _Seto-freaking-Kaiba_! You could easily have almost anyone you want, maybe even multiple people at a time! So why don't you?"

Kaiba stood there for a while in utter shock. Why, of all people, was his little brother telling him this? The kid was 13! He might understand if a grown adult said something like that to him, not that any of them would have the guts, but his little brother? It was a bit frightening at the least.

"Well what do you have to say for yourself mister?" Mokuba prodded.

…

"Get in the restaurant Mokuba. I'm buying you a kids meal."

* * *

Don't worry, I won't write out the entire duel. Probably just the last turn.

Welp, thanks for reading!

Please review!


	7. It's Not A Date

YES, I know this is a day late. Sorry? Sometimes things happen. X3

Annnywaaaays, I hope you all like this chappy!

Note: **IF YOU JUST ABSOLUTLY CANNOT STAND READING DUELS AND CAN'T BARE TO READ THE ONE TURN THAT I WROTE, SCROLL DOWN UNTIL YOU SEE THE "xxXxx" SIGNIFYING A SCENE CHANGE.**

But it will make me sad if you guys skip it. :(

Enjoy! ;3

* * *

"Hn. It seems I won't have to 'worry about you bothering me in any way ever again', huh? Those were your exact words, weren't they?" Kaiba mocked. He was in the middle of the duel he'd agreed to with Yami in his spacious backyard. Or rather, in his eyes, toward the end of the duel. He had managed to summon all three of his "Blue Eyes White Dragons" while Yami only had a "Celtic Guardian" on the field along with some other monster that was laid face down. He also had a couple cards face down, but they didn't worry him. They'd been there for most of the duel and it didn't seem like Yami had plans to use them.

"Don't be so sure Kaiba. This duel isn't over yet."

"That may be the case as of right now, but next turn Swords of Revealing Light won't be on the field to protect you." he continued. "I place one card face down and end my turn."

Yami scanned his hand for a few moments, then drew a card. A small smirk formed on his face.

"And just like that, your fate has been sealed." Yami said. "Watch closely, I'm about to win this." Kaiba furrowed his eyebrows but said nothing. There was no way the runt could win. So far, he'd yet to even make a dent in the CEO's life points; he still had all 4000 of them while Yami's had dropped all the way down to 500.

"First, I activate the trap card, 'Call of the Haunted' to bring back my 'Skilled Dark Magician' from the graveyard." As he spoke, the said monster materialized in front of him dressed in a dark cloak and heavy armor holding a short staff. "Next, I flip summon the monster 'Man Eater Bug'. Due to its effect, I can destroy one of your monsters."

Kaiba glared as he slipped one of his dragons off of the field and into the slot on his duel disk that was the graveyard.

"Now I'll tribute my 'Man Eater Bug' and 'Celtic Guardian' to summon 'Dark Magician of Chaos'." The two monsters dissipated and a monster with blue skin in a blue outfit with red buckles going down his arms and legs appeared. "'Dark Magician of Chaos's effect! When it's normal or special summoned, I can add a spell card from my graveyard to my hand. I'm going to use that spell card now right now; I activate 'Monster Reborn'! And the monster that I choose to revive is…"

Oh he'd better not.

"Your 'Blue Eyes White Dragon'!" The humongous dragon appeared again, this time on the opposite side of the field. Boy, was Kaiba pissed now.

"Also, I activated a spell card, meaning a spell counter is put on my 'Skilled Dark Magician'. Now I activate the spell card 'Red Medicine' which increases my life points by 500. That's a second spell counter. I'll put a third one on my magician by equipping 'Blue Eyes White Dragon' with 'Black Pendent', which increases its attack points by 500! Do you know what happens when there are three spell counters on 'Skilled Dark Magician'?"

Kaiba remained silent.

"I can tribute it to special summon 'Dark Magician' from my deck!" The purple clothed creature took the place of the sacrificed monster with a battle stance.

"With 2500 attack points, that monster isn't strong enough to defeat my 'Blue Eyes'." Kaiba stated.

"He doesn't have to be because I activate my final spell card: 'Thousand Knives'! While I control 'Dark Magician', I can destroy one monster on your side of the field!"

"That's where I draw the line!" Kaiba said. "I activate my counter trap card: 'Spell Shield Type-8'! This negates the activation and effect of a spell card that targets one monster on the field and destroys it."

"Heh, I thought you might do something like that. I reveal my face down card: 'Counter Counter'! It negates the activation of a counter trap card and destroys it!" Yami said. Kaiba snarled as he placed both the trap card and his second dragon in the graveyard.

"Now, 'Blue Eyes' attack his last monster!"

The beast complied with a roar and spewed a ray of white light at its slightly weaker duplicate. There was a growl heard over on Kaiba's side of the field as smoke engulfed the area. He held his arm over his face as the smoke clouds were blown his way. Once it cleared he looked down at his duel disk and watched his life points drop for the first time to this duel to 3500. He glared death up at Yami who seemed completely unfazed by it. Kaiba's field was completely empty now, and Yami still had two monsters to attack with.

'Damn it.'

"Alright! 'Dark Magician'! 'Dark Magician of Chaos'! Attack Kaiba's life points directly!" He ordered. The two magicians charged up there power and fired their attack at Kaiba. Kaiba shielded his face again as he heard the sound of his life points hit zero.

Once the smoke finally cleared for a second time, Kaiba dropped his arm back down to his side and continued to glare at Yami, trying his best to cover the surprise that was currently overwhelming him. In a matter of minutes, the entire duel had been turned around.

Yami's smirk grew as he said, "Looks like you owe me a signature."

xxXxx

Kaiba sat on the couch in his living room with his arms crossed as he stared angrily at a small poster of himself dressed as Kaibaman with three 'Blue Eyes White Dragons' behind him. He couldn't believe he actually had to sign it. He couldn't believe he lost! Especially to that brat!

That brat…

He looked up at Yami who had a rather smug look on his face and half expected another arrogant statement out of him. However, he remained silent and merely held out a permanent marker to Kaiba. He snatched it out of Yami's hand and quickly scribbled down "Seto Kaiba" in large cursive letters in the top right-hand corner. As he placed the top back on the marker, he heard Yami say, "Kaibaman".

He shot a look over to him. "What was that?"

"You have to write 'Kaibaman' too. If you wouldn't mind." he clarified. Kaiba raised an eyebrow at him. All traces of haughtiness were gone, including that smirk Kaiba thought would never go away, and had been replaced with a more serious look.

Kaiba folded his arms across his chest again and said, "Don't be so damn picky. I signed the thing already. Why the hell should I do it again?"

"Well signing the poster with 'Kaibaman' would add an element of actuality to it. Yes, Kaiba signed it, but in doing so Kaibaman did as well. In a way, it's a very efficient way in connecting with the character. The aura of that charismatic hero that appears on your TV screen will now not only hold a very special place in your heart, but is also now visibly real. You'll be able to look at that poster and proudly say, 'Kaibaman wrote his name there. That very same Kaibaman that millions of children look up to.' It'll be like-"

"Enough!" Kaiba yelled. In an attempt to keep his sanity intact and stop himself from strangling the life out of Yami, he wrote "Kaibaman" below his name, placed the cap on the marker again, and handed it to the teen. Yami grinned wildly and took the writing utensil from him.

"Thank you." he said almost too self-contentedly. Kaiba clenched his teeth. He'd been taunted just now. Yami had taunted him to sign the poster by merely talking and it had worked.

That damn brat…

"Nii-sama! Pegasus wanted me to ask you abou-Oh. Yami, you're still here! What are you two up to?"

Kaiba watched his younger brother descend the spiral stairs on the opposite side of the room.

"Just getting my poster signed." Yami said. Mokuba stopped walking about halfway across the room.

"…Wha? Your poster? Then does that mean…?" Mokuba asked absentmindedly. He stared up at Yami. "You…won?"

Yami nodded. Mokuba slowly looked over to Kaiba with a look of obvious confusion. "And you lost?" He continued, trying to fathom the idea.

"I think it was really just due to luck." Yami spoke up. "If I hadn't of drawn the card that I did at the last minute, there was no way I would have been able to defeat him. He's a very formidable opponent."

Normally, being boasted about was an event that Kaiba quite enjoyed, but something told him that Yami only said that to make Mokuba feel better and he didn't really mean it. And that pissed him off even more.

Nevertheless, Mokuba seemed persuaded by his words and nodded with a small smile and an, "Oh, I see."

"Well now Yami doesn't have to stay away from you forever, huh Nii-sama?" Mokuba asked as he walked the remainder of the way over. "Isn't that niiiiice-"

"Wasn't there something you needed to talk to me about Mokuba? Something about Pegasus?" Kaiba interjected. No way were they talking about THAT again. Especially not in front of Yami.

"Oh yeah. Pegasus said that we need to talk about what we're doing for the grand opening of Kaibaland." the boy explained.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he said that we should come up with some kind of exciting event to get people hyped."

"…is a one hundred and forty acre amusement park with over fifty attractions not exciting enough by itself?"

"According to Pegasus, no…He suggested that we have a skit acted out starring some toon monsters from the game before we let people in."

"Well tell that cartoon-loving fruitcake that he can take those stupid toon monsters and shove them right up his-"

"I don't think that would be a very appropriate skit to show." Kaiba shot a glare over at Yami. "…Well it wouldn't be. Might scare some people away." the small teen finished.

"What if we just handed out some balloons or something?" Mokuba attempted, diverting his brother's attention.

"And when we run out, then what? You know how many kids will be crying to their parents about how they didn't get a stupid balloon? And how many parents will start complaining about it?" Kaiba pointed out.

"Good point…"

Quietness settled around the three of them. If Kaiba could have it his way, he'd just open the place, tell people to go in, and be done with it. But no, of course Pegasus had to suggest some kind of over-the-top event to go along with it. And as much as Kaiba hated to admit it, the loony might have a good point. Something extravagant right before they opened would be a sure-fire way to attract the attention of even more people. That would mean more revenue; something both he and Pegasus wanted seeing as how it was technically a joint effort. Kaiba had the place designed and built, but all of the Duel Monsters characters still belonged to Pegasus, so he did get a fair cut of the profits.

But what the hell could he do to make such an amazing Grand Opening Ceremony?

"The skit idea…" Kaiba turned his head to look at Yami. "…isn't a terribly bad idea." He raised an eyebrow at the teen. "Well, maybe not exactly a 'skit', but you could have a little mini scene play out. Since everyone loves Kaibaman so much, it could be the typical 'hero saves the beautiful maiden' type thing." Mokuba turned to listen in as well. "Just imagine it, the Maiden comes running through the crowd of people warning people about a 'great evil' and is being chased by…hm…Dartz?"

"No! Nightshroud! The guy who uses 'Red Eyes'!" Mokuba yelled with enthusiasm.

"Okay, Nightshroud. So she's being chased by Nightshroud, and gets backed against the gate. Nightshroud is doing that whole 'I will take over the world' speech, when suddenly: BAM! A card was thrown at him and hit his hand before he had the chance to do anything. People are looking around, wondering what that was or where it came from when: WOOSH! Kaibaman appears and tells Nightshroud that he'll never let him take over the world. Then he summons up 'Blue Eyes' with Maiden's help, and they defeat Nightchroud! Everyone's cheering and yelling how awesome Kaibaman is, until finally…finally…"

"Maiden and Kaibaman seal it with a kiss!" Yami and Mokuba chorused.

"That'll be so awesome!" Mokuba exclaimed. He turned to his brother and said, "We should do that! Everyone will love it!"

Kaiba scratched the back of his head as he thought about how any of that would even work. It wasn't like they could use any special effects or say, "CUT!" If something went wrong. But Mokuba seemed to really like the idea, so Kaiba reluctantly said, "…We'll discuss it with Pegasus and see what happens."

"O-KAY!" Mokuba cheered.

"Um." Kaiba looked over at Yami again. "Do you know what time it is?" he asked. Kaiba just looked at him for a little while, then pulled out his phone and clicked a button on the side to make the screen light up.

"6:38"

Yami shot up out of his spot.

"…What?" Kaiba asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him.

"Oh…nothing." he said, shaking his head. "It's just much later than I thought it was." Yami grabbed his poster, rolled it up, and wrapped the rubber band that had been sitting on the table around it. "I should really get going." he said.

"Aw, do you have to? We could have someone drive you home if you want." Mokuba asked with a pout.

"Mokuba." Kaiba snapped.

"Yes, I'm afraid I have to. I'll be fine just walking, but thank you." Yami assured. "See you Mokuba, Kaiba."

"Bye Yami." Mokuba said. Yami looked at Kaiba like he was waiting for him to say 'bye' as well, but when he never did Yami sighed with a small smile and left.

Once Yami's footsteps could no longer be heard, Mokuba spun around and pouted at Kaiba angrily.

"Nii-sama…"

"Don't start Mokuba."

* * *

So, so far there hasn't really been any romance or anything like I'd intended, so I'll definitely start working on that in the next chapter! Just keep in mind that these things take time. :3 It'll eventually start to build up though, I promise!

Thanks for reading!

Please review!


	8. To Forgive

Next chapter up! Yay! I think I'm starting to get better at writing! :D

As in, not taking _forever_ to write one chapter anymore. I'm still pretty slow, but it's not as bad I think. Practice makes perfect I suppose!

Enjoy! ;3

* * *

Quick footsteps echoed softly as Seto Kaiba walked down the long hallway of his mansion. It was fairly early for him to be home; being the young businessman that he was, he normally worked late into the night. With the opening of Kaibaland, though, he found that everything seemed to be moving a lot smoother than normal. The new duel disks were already being sold, nothing had come up about any viruses, and he'd already spoken to Pegasus about the Grand Opening Ceremony. Of course, the fruit was ecstatic about the whole idea and all arrangements for it had been thought up and made possible, though a few changes had to be made.

As of right then, Kaiba had no need to be at work. He didn't have any meetings he had to go to until Monday. Though he did still have a few e-mails to go through and to write, he decided that it would be fine to do so at home.

And so here he was, standing in front of the double doors that lead into his living room and with his bedroom not far from there. He shoved the doors open and stepped into the room, pushing them closed behind him.

"Oh, hey Nii-sama. You're home early."

Kaiba looked up and was about to greet the boy who had just spoken to him, but was caught off guard when he saw a familiar head of spikey hair next to him.

"Why are you here?" he asked in a low voice.

"Well hello to you too." Yami responded.

Kaiba frowned.

"Ah…Nii-sama, Yami's here because I invited him." He turned to Mokuba with one eyebrow raised.

"…Why?"

"Erm…uh…well, because…" Mokuba looked up at Yami shyly, silently pleading for help. The teen nodded at him and looked at Kaiba.

"On my way back from school I passed by the Domino Private Middle School and I noticed that Mokuba was being teased by some other kids, so I went over and told them to knock it off. He invited me over to thank me for doing that I believe." Mokuba's head snapped up with wide eyes and he made a weird squeak noise in his throat. Kaiba's expression must have scared him because once he saw it, he lowered his head down.

Kaiba felt his left eye start to twitch, but he didn't even bother to try and control it as he asked, "Is that true?" Mokuba didn't say anything though.

"It is." Yami said in his place. "Apparently it's been going on for a while."

"Yami!" Mokuba cried out, snapping his head back up toward the teen.

"You can't hide it forever, Mokuba." Yami informed and the boy dropped his head back down in defeat.

"I didn't want to tell him because I wanted to try and handle it myself…"

Had Kaiba just heard right? Some snot-nosed brats had the nerve to harass Mokuba? And this had been going on without Kaiba's knowledge? For how long? And who dared to do such a thing? Dozens of questioned began plaguing his mind and he was seeing red by the time he had actually managed to sputter one of them out.

"Who?" he asked as emotionless as possible, trying with all of his power to keep his rage under control. He must've had a pretty scary look on his face though, because both Yami and Mokuba seemed a little nervous.

"U-uh…" Yami stuttered. A few moments went by without anyone saying anything, so he attempted asking again.

"Who was messing with you Mokuba?"

Mokuba blinked a few times, then frowned.

"Oh-ho-ho, no." he said, shaking his head. "I'm not telling you who. Knowing you, you'll probably threaten them, or ruin their family's business, or hire a hitman to take them out!"

"Oh, I'm not going to kill them." Kaiba assured. The other two options didn't sound too bad though.

Mokuba folded his arms over his chest in a very Kaiba-esque way and said nothing else. Kaiba sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Perhaps it would be best to just let it go…" Kaiba heard Yami say. "After all, no one was hurt and I think those kids learned their lesson."

"They learn their lesson alright. You told them OFF!" Mokuba exaggerated, making Yami chuckle lightly.

Kaiba thought about it for a short while, then let out a small, "Fine." He'd let those little devil spawns off the hook for now, but if he found out about something like this happening again, ohhh he'd make them sorry.

"Hey, Mokuba?" Yami said, interrupting Kaiba's train of thought. "What time is it?"

Mokuba looked at the watch around his left wrist and said, "4:34. Why?" Yami got up from the spot on the love seat he'd been sitting on and stretched.

"Hah…" he dropped his arms down with a large exhale. "I need to get going. I have somewhere I have to stop by before I go home."

"Awww!" Mokuba whined. "OH!" he perked up all of a sudden. "Tomorrow's Sunday!" Yami nodded.

"Yup. Hooray for no school."

"Yeah! We don't have to go to school tomorrow!" Mokuba said, hopping up as well. "You should come over again!"

"Mm…I don't know about that…" Yami replied, eyeing Kaiba for a few seconds.

"It'll be fun! We can all hang out! Please?" Mokuba asked, flashing Yami big puppy dog eyes. Yami hesitated for a moment, clearly caught off guard.

"Well…sure, I'd love to." he caved. "As long as it's okay with your brother that is."

Suddenly, Kaiba found the look Mokuba had given Yami quickly turned toward him as the boy pleaded, "Please Nii-sama? Can he? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase?"

Kaiba rubbed the back of his neck. He was still a little peeved about the whole thumb drive incident, but the guy did stand up for Mokuba. And if he hadn't of told Kaiba about the jerks that had been bullying him, he might not have even found out about it. Kaiba furrowed his eyebrows.

'Should I really just forgive him?"

Kaiba began walking toward the spiral staircase that led upstairs.

"Nii-sama?"

Kaiba paused about two thirds of the way up the stairs. A few seconds passed and he continued his way up.

"Ni-"

"6:00." Kaiba stated.

"…Huh?" Mokuba questioned. Kaiba stopped walking once he reached the top of the staircase.

"I want him to leave by 6:00 tomorrow." he clarified, and made his way across the top floor.

"Does that mean you forgive me for the thumb drive thing?" Yami said, taking a step forward. Kaiba didn't answer and simply continued walking until he was no longer seen.

"I think that's a yes." he heard Mokuba say as he turned down the hallway.

* * *

Awwwwww. Kaiba forgave Yami…and expressed it in his own little weird way. :D

PROGRESS!

Thanks for reading!

Some feedback would be awesome!


	9. Checkmate

Yet another chapter! Woo! I really tried to make this chapter long. It's six pages in Microsoft Word, but a lot of that is dialogue…so it isn't as long as I wanted.

What's a good length for a chapter to be anyway? This one hits just above the 2,000 words mark.

Sorry, I better stop before I ramble on forever!

Enjoy! ;3

* * *

"Why are you just now telling me about this?"

Mokuba shrugged as he grabbed a pair of faded blue sneakers from his closet.

"I guess I forgot." the boy said.

"Right, 'forgot'."

Mokuba smiled sheepishly and turned to leave when a maid knocked on the open door to his bedroom.

"Mr. Yami is here to see you." she stated, head bowed. Kaiba looked at Mokuba who looked back at him.

"Let him in I guess." he said finally. The woman nodded and left the room. The two of them did the same.

Yami was already inside removing his shoes by the time Kaiba got to the front entrance room. He stood up straight from his kneeling position once he finished and said, "Hey Mokuba." He looked over at Kaiba and continued, "Hello Kaiba." a bit quieter.

"Hey Yami!" Mokuba chirped as he hopped over.

"Going somewhere?" Yami asked, taking note of the shoes the boy was holding.

"Yeah…I have this project I need to work on with a friend that I forgot about. It's due tomorrow so I have to go. _It might take a while too_." he answered, cupping the side of his face.

Yami blinked at him a few times and then said, "Oh. Well…then maybe I should just go? We could always do this another time."

"No!" Mokuba yelled, holding his free hand out in front of him. "You can still stay. It'll just be you and Nii-sama."

Kaiba placed his hand over his face. So _this_ is what Mokuba was up to all along. He should've known. He brought his hand back down and looked at Yami who seemed to have been looking at Kaiba as well, but had quickly turned his head back to Mokuba.

"I-I don't know if that's a very good-"

"It's a great idea!" Mokuba said as he shoved Yami away from the front doors and a few feet closer to Kaiba. "I'm sure the two of you'll come up with something to do!" Yami planted his feet on the floor as firmly as one could when wearing socks on a wooden floor to stop himself from getting too close.

"Mokuba?" he questioned, looking at the boy.

"Come on, it'll be fine!" Mokuba said, puppy dog eyes shining brightly.

Yami jerked at the sudden change and finally stuttered out, "F-fine. I'll stay."

'Oh, for the love of…' Kaiba thought.

Mokuba grinned wildly and jogged over to the front doors, slipped his shoes on, grabbed a few folders that had been laying on a shelf to his right, and said, "Alright, bye you guys!" Just as he was about to leave through the doors, he twisted his head towards Kaiba and Yami and said, "Have fun!" and shut the doors behind him. Kaiba could have sworn that he saw the slightest hint of a smirk on his face.

xxXxx

…

…

…

"Nice place you got here."

"Hn."

…

…

…

"You're doing well I presume?"

"I guess."

…

…

…

"I like this rug."

Kaiba pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. After Mokuba left, the two of them went to the living room and sat down. So far, all that's happened is that Yami would say some random-ass comment which would be followed by a few seconds of awkward silence. Kaiba would get Mokuba back for this.

Yami seemed to notice Kaiba's composure slipping and decided to try and start a real conversation.

"You know how to play chess?" he asked, pointing to the chess set still taking up room on the glass table.

Knew how to play? Kaiba had been playing chess since he was a toddler. He'd won every competition he'd ever competed in and even tricked his step-father into adopting him and Mokuba when he was only 10 by beating the fool at a game of chess. Yeah, he knew how.

"Yeah." was all he actually said though.

"Are you any good?" Yami wondered aloud. Kaiba snorted.

"Something like that."

Yami gazed at the game board for a while, and Kaiba found himself asking, "Do you?"

Yami looked up at him and let the question register in his brain before saying, "Know how to play? No." He smiled sadly. "I've always sort of wanted to learn how, but I guess I just never got to it." He picked up one of the black Pawns and inspected the piece. "Maybe…you could teach me how to play?" he asked as nonchalantly as he could, but Kaiba could hear the eagerness in his voice.

"Teach you?" he repeated. He guessed anything was better than the odd pattern of "statement, silence, statement, silence" that had developed a few moments before. "I suppose." he said.

Yami smiled brightly at him and Kaiba felt something stir inside of him at the sight, but quickly ignored the feeling.

"So, I know that this is the King" Yami began, pointing at the tallest piece with a cross on top of it, "and this is the Queen. And this short piece…" He looked at the Pawn still in his hand. "It can only move one space at a time right?" he said, motioning the action as he spoke. "And…" he scanned around the board and picked up another piece. "What's this horse do?"

"It's called a Knight." Kaiba corrected.

"Well it looks like a horse."

"That may be so, but it's called a Knight."

"Okay, then what does the _Knight_ do?" Yami asked again, emphasizing the name unnecessarily. Kaiba rolled his eyes.

"It moves in the form of an "L" in any direction. Three spaces on one side and two on the other like this." He moved one of the white Knights to demonstrate.

"I see…"

Kaiba went on to explain what each piece did and what was considered checkmate and so on as Yami listened to him intently. Once he finished, they began playing. Yami seemed to have been listening quite well and moved each piece correctly. After a while, Kaiba found that he was actually enjoying himself. It was strange; Yami, it being his first time playing, wasn't much of a challenge to face. Kaiba often found a game to be boring and a waste of time if there was no challenge, but the thought never even crossed his mind as he played against the teen.

Kaiba found it interesting how determined he looked even though he only had two Pawns, a Bishop, and his King left. He noticed how Yami yanked at his bangs when he was trying to concentrate and sometimes pulled a bundle of his hair in front of his face like a mustache. He observed how Yami would smirk, even if ever-so-slightly, when he made a decent move or took one of Kaiba's pieces and how he would furrow his eyebrows but not seem angry when Kaiba did so as well.

Something about watching Yami's actions intrigued Kaiba, and soon he found himself downright staring at the guy. Once he took note of the fact that he was doing so, he quickly flicked his eyes down to the game board and chose to focus on that instead. Yami only had one Pawn and his King left. Kaiba blinked. Only two pieces left? Well that was strange. Usually Kaiba wouldn't have let a game of chess go on long enough for his opponent to have only a couple pieced left. He'd let himself get too distracted, more than likely.

"You know, you really should just give up." Kaiba said, breaking the silence that had steadily grown around them.

"Shh."

Kaiba bit his tongue back before he snapped at the teen for telling him to 'shh'. He crossed his arms as he waited for Yami to take his turn. He made sure to correct himself whenever his eyes began drifting away from the board and toward the person in front of him.

Finally, Yami picked his King up and moved it to the left. Kaiba moved his Queen two spaces away from it.

"Check." he said dully.

Yami moved his King again and Kaiba slid his Rook over.

"Check again."

This repeated over and over again until his King was finally surrounded.

"It's over." Kaiba stated. Yami continued to look at the board.

"You didn't say check."

Kaiba blinked and looked back at the board. He'd moved his Knight closer to Yami's King, but it hadn't put the piece in check.

"No." he agreed. "I didn't." Yami smiled and looked up at Kaiba.

"Did you forget about my Pawn?" he asked. Kaiba glanced at the small item. Kaiba had focused on surrounding the King so much, he didn't think much of the piece. Somehow it had gotten across the board and was only one space away from the end. Yami moved the rounded piece to the final space and said, "I'll be taking my Queen back." Kaiba frowned as Yami replaced the weakest piece on the board with the strongest.

"Not like it matters now." Kaiba pointed out. He moved his Bishop to be diagonal to Yami's King. "That's Checkmate." Yami smiled.

"Well, I tried."

"I'll admit, you weren't terribly bad for your first time playing."

"Really? Why don't we play one more time then?"

Kaiba gave the idea some thought and then began setting his pieces up again. Yami grinned and started doing the same.

"Do I get to go first this time?" Yami asked.

"No. The white pieces always go first."

"Why?"

"It's just the rules."

"Well that's a little racist."

Kaiba paused what he was doing for a moment then shook his head, but couldn't stop himself from cracking a small smile for a split second. After all of the pieces were set up again, Kaiba moved a Pawn forward two spaces and finally commented, "I don't think race has anything to do with it."

"So you don't think it's a bit racist for the white pieces to always go before the black ones?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes.

"Just take your turn."

Kaiba definitely noticed a difference in Yami's skill level this time. He was being a bit more cautious about his moves and was able to keep so many pieces from being taken. Once again, Kaiba found himself being entranced by the boy's demeanor, and before he knew it:

"Check…mate?" Kaiba looked down where his King was and saw Yami's Bishop sitting diagonal from it. Assessing the predicament, he shook his head, picked up his Queen, and took the piece that had posed a threat.

"No, it was just Check." he corrected.

"Oh." Yami replied, furrowing his eyebrows in comprehension. Kaiba had to hand it to him, he was a fast learner. "Hey." Kaiba looked at Yami. "What time is it?"

Kaiba sighed.

"That's what, the fourth time you've asked me that today?" Yami rubbed the back of his head apologetically. "Don't you have a watch or something?"

"I do. It just doesn't work."

"Well get it fixed or buy another one or something." Kaiba suggested. He pulled his phone out and checked. "It's 5:05. I'll tell you when it's 6:00 so stop bugging me about it."

"Actually I should get going right now." Yami informed him. Kaiba raised an eyebrow at him.

"Now?" Yami smirked.

"What, would you rather me stay?" Kaiba frowned at him.

"You're going to leave in the middle of this game?" he asked, avoiding the question.

Yami smiled sadly and said, "I hate to, but I really need to go. We could play again though." Kaiba folded his arms over his chest. Why did he have to leave so urgently? He was tempted to ask, but decided not to. It wasn't any of his business, after all.

"Fine." Kaiba said, standing up. Yami smiled surprisingly warmly at the CEO and Kaiba wasn't exactly sure how to respond, so he walked ahead of him and opened the double doors leading into the hallway. "Come on, then." he said when Yami didn't move right away. The teen seemed surprised at first, but simply smiled again and followed Kaiba down the hall.

Once Yami had his shoes on, he turned to Kaiba and said, "Well that was fun. Hopefully we can hang out again?"

"…Hn." Kaiba crossed his arms again, suddenly feeling extremely awkward. It was something he wasn't quite used to and he had to say, he wasn't very fond of the feeling.

"See you later, Kaiba." Yami said, stepping outside.

Kaiba heard the doors shut close and let out a breath that he couldn't remember why he'd been holding.

He looked at the spot where Yami had been standing and said, "…See you later. Yami."

* * *

Oh, Kaiba.

I just realized that I forgot to include what everyone was wearing! Oh well, they're wearing whatever you want them to wear because I'm too lazy to go back and put that in.

Why _do_ the white pieces always get to go first? Anyone know? Anyone? Take a guess! No! No cheating! You have to guess! And if you already know…then I guess that makes you smarter than me. X3

Thanks a bundle for reading!

Please let me know what you think!


	10. I Know All Too Well

Yeah I know, this chapter's a little late. I sorry?

I don't really have much to say here, so on with the fic!

Enjoy! ;3

*In Japan, they go to school six days a week with only Sunday as their day off. Yup, they go to school Saturday!

* * *

Kaiba watched the many worn down buildings that passed him that were almost all covered in sloppy graffiti with stupid or obscene pictures on them. He always passed them when he was being driven home, but he'd never really noticed how completely fallen apart they looked; he usually had much more important things to focus on. However, as of the moment, everything that needed to be done in preparation for the Kaibaland Grand Opening Ceremony that was just one day away was done. He already knew the few lines he had to say, as did all the other participants. Everything in Kaibaland was working now; the rollercoaster had been fixed, and the "must be this tall to ride" board had been repaired as well.

Yes, at the moment the only thing the CEO had to do was to look over a few papers once he got home and verify that everything was indeed in order as he thought. Kaiba's eyes scanned over a few more works of "art" plastered on the deserted buildings, though he had to squint a little to see them because of the rain that was coming down. He saw one picture shine in the moon light of two detailed skeletons holding hands like a couple. As he tried to understand the point of that picture he saw another piece of graffiti, this one just words. It said "sory about ur wall bich" in messy handwriting. Kaiba rolled his eyes. As if the joke wasn't bad enough, the person who decided to put it there was also apparently incredibly stupid and had the writing skills of a five year old. On the wall next to that one was another picture. It looked like a poorly drawn man holding what Kaiba hoped was a lopsided bone, but something told him that it wasn't. The graffiti seemed to just go down-hill from there and Kaiba found himself getting bored of looking at them. By this time the rain had picked up and it was too difficult to make out what was on the walls anyway.

Just when Kaiba was about to look away from the window, he saw a flash of red, black, and blond pass by. He snapped his head over to where he thought he'd seen the familiar combination but when there was nothing more than another wall there he shifted in his seat to rotate his head and look through the back window of his vehicle. Lo and behold, there was Yami standing smack dab in the middle of the downpour. Almost immediately after seeing the small teen, Kaiba barked out an order for the driver to stop the limo before they got too far away. He watched Yami for a few seconds to see if he planned to move or just stand there like an idiot and get wet. When he didn't move, Kaiba shoved the door open and grabbed his briefcase as he stepped out, using it to shield the cold rain from his head.

"Yami!" he called out. The teen jumped and looked in Kaiba's direction with a surprised expression. "What the hell are you doing out here?" he demanded.

"Uh…" Yami glanced around. "I was just…I was…um…" Kaiba stood there, waiting for his explanation as to why he was standing in the pouring rain in an abandoned neighborhood on a cold November night. He quickly found his patience leaving him as Yami continued to sputter out only "uh", "erm", and "um", so he broke the continuous sounds of perplexity with a loud sigh, making sure that it was heard.

"Get in." he ordered, moving a little farther away from the door as to make room for Yami to do so. The teen looked at Kaiba for a little while as if actually contemplating whether getting in the limo would be a better idea than standing in the rain, then slowly made his way over and climbed in, flashing Kaiba an apologetic smile.

Kaiba slammed the door shut behind him and told the chauffeur to drive. He scowled in spite of himself out of the window. He'd done it again. Once again, he'd acted without thinking. He seemed to do that a lot whenever it involved Yami. He could have easily just passed by him and pretend he'd never even seen the runt. But he didn't. He hadn't even thought about doing such a thing until after the fact.

And so here he was, sitting in his limo with a cold and soaked Yami just like he was the first day he'd met him.

xxXxx

"So let me get this straight…"

Yami shifted in his seat as Kaiba gazed down at him. He'd taken Yami home with him and had him change into Mokuba's robe again as his clothes were being cleaned. Once Yami had settled onto the couch, Kaiba had almost immediately started interrogating him.

"You went for a walk earlier, wandered into that neighborhood, and got lost." Kaiba summed up what he was just told by Yami, who nodded. Kaiba raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why did you go for a walk in the rain?"

"It wasn't raining when I left."

"It's been raining nonstop since this evening. Must have been one hell of a walk for you to be out there for that long."

There was a short pause, then Yami said, "I was lost for a while." Kaiba formed his eyes into slits and frowned.

"Is that so?" he asked in a disdainful tone. "And what exactly was so confusing about that area?" Yami glanced off to the side.

"It was, um…well I was…the street names were really unfamiliar and…I guess it just kind of caught me off guard…"

"And you expect me to believe all of this? That you couldn't find your way out of that simple little neighborhood? You would have been out of there within twenty minutes at most if you had just kept walking forward! Now tell me, Yami, what is so damn difficult about that?"

Yami stared at Kaiba with his brows furrowed and his jaw clenched, like he was holding something back from spilling out. Kaiba waited in anticipation for the answer he thought Yami was about to give him. A few moments passed, and Yami looked away again.

"…Why would I lie?" Yami asked. Kaiba frowned again and leaned against the arm of the loveseat behind him.

"Why indeed?"

Yami seemed to almost physically shy away at that statement. Silence grew heavily between them, being broken only when a clap of thunder rumbled outside. Yami reached up with his left hand and scratched the back of his head, clearly uncomfortable. The motion caused Kaiba to instinctively glance in that direction momentarily, but once he did, he did a double take. In a swift motion, he grabbed Yami's left hand.

Yami started, surprised by Kaiba's sudden action. He stared wide-eyed at the brunette, and Kaiba stared at the hand he'd just grasped. They stayed that way for a short while, then Yami spoke up saying, "Wha-".

Before he had the chance to finish even one word, Kaiba pulled his hand down until his arm was fully extended out, and yanked the sleeve up. Silence settled around them, not even thunder sounding to disturb it. Kaiba gazed at the arm he'd just uncovered and struggled to form a sentence due to the bewilderment he was feeling.

Finally, he was able to force out, "What is this?" Yami was quiet. Kaiba tore his eyes away from the limb and looked at Yami who seemed almost as surprised as Kaiba was.

"…What does it look like?" he countered, looking away and obviously trying to remove his arm from Kaiba's grasp. Kaiba glared at Yami and continued to hold the appendage in place.

"Yami." he said in a low voice. "Why are there cuts on your wrist?"

All along about halfway down his left arm, there were many cuts all going horizontally. Most of them looked old and a few were just scars, but there were also three fresh looking slices imbedded into his flesh. As soon as Kaiba had seen them, a wave of different emotions had surged through him. He wasn't quite sure _why_ he was so concerned about this, but he was.

"Yami." he repeated sternly. The teen flinched and slowly looked up at Kaiba with his eyes widened slightly and his mouth ajar. He stared at Kaiba for a little bit, then inhaled like he was about to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of doors being opened. Kaiba whipped his head to the left to see who dared disturb them.

"Mr. Kaiba, the clothes you asked to be washed are finished." a maid stated as she stepped into the room. Kaiba looked at Yami and he looked back nervously. Reluctant, Kaiba released Yami's hand. The tri-colored haired teen practically jumped up out of his seat and across the room to obtain his clothes. The maid handed then to him and bowed, then left. Yami headed toward the room he had used previously to change.

"There's a first-aid kit mounted to the wall in there. I suggest you use it unless you want those to get infected." Kaiba said. Yami paused on the way to his destination, but continued without saying anything.

After a long wait, Yami returned in the black jacket, gray shirt, and navy blue jeans he'd been wearing before. He avoided Kaiba's gaze as he quickly said, "I'm going to go home. Bye." and walked to the double doors leading out of the room. Kaiba growled at him for trying to leave so suddenly and speedily went to the doors as well. He beat Yami to it and stood there with his arms folded, blocking the way. Yami halted to a stop right in front of Kaiba and stood there in silence as if expecting Kaiba to move. When he didn't, Yami said, "Excuse me, Kaiba." and tried to step around him, but Kaiba easily foiled the attempt by stepping in the same direction.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Kaiba asked, holding up a mass of key chains held together by a black and red lanyard. Yami looked up at what Kaiba was holding and reached to take it, but Kaiba pulled it away before he could grab onto it. "First, tell me-"

"I don't want to." Yami interjected. Kaiba glared down at him. "Please, Kaiba." Yami gazed at Kaiba, red orbs flashing an emotion that Kaiba couldn't quite put his finger on. Whatever that was that had stirred in those eyes, it made Kaiba feel uneasy.

Kaiba closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He couldn't look into those eyes any longer.

"Listen," he began, "whatever the reason is, doing something like _that_ sure as hell isn't going to solve anything. Sure, maybe it helps you deal with whatever is causing you to feel like that's necessary and it might feel satisfactory in that instant, but wouldn't it feel all the more satisfactory if you just dealt with whatever drove you to do it? Don't be a coward, and face the problem head on!" Kaiba reopened his eyes to see that, thankfully, the emotion that had been lingering on Yami's face was gone completely and replaced with a look of shock. It was understandable; Kaiba was a bit shocked that he'd said that as well.

What shocked Kaiba even more was that Yami flashed him an incredible smile once he got over the initial surprise.

"You're right."

Kaiba blinked. "Say what?"

Yami laughed. Shit, did he say that out loud? Kaiba suddenly felt a little humiliated, something he absolutely despised and rarely ever felt, which only cause him to feel even more so.

"I _SAID_: You're right." Yami reiterated. He sighed. "I guess I must have been acting a bit strange huh? I'm sorry, there's just been quite a bit on my mind. I'm alright though, really. But I do need to leave, it's late and I have school tomorrow you know." Oh yeah, it was *Friday. Kaiba looked Yami over, then tossed the bug bunch of key chains he'd been holding to him and refolded his arms over his chest.

"Do you plan to walk?" he asked.

"Yeah, it won't take me too long to get home." Yami tried stepping around Kaiba again, but again, Kaiba stopped him.

"You do realize it's still raining right?" As if on cue, a crack of thunder roared and shook the ground a bit. "If you walk, you'll just get wet again."

Yami seemed to ponder the thought as Kaiba turned around and pushed the doors open. He spotted a maid passing by and called her over.

"Tell Fuguta that he's to drive Yami to his house." he told her. "Yami, follow her and she'll take you to my limo. Just tell the driver your address and he'll take you home." Yami raised his eyebrows.

"Ah…" He nodded hesitantly. "Alright. I'll see you at the grand opening of Kaibaland then." Kaiba nodded as his goodbye and watched Yami walk into the hallway.

"Right this way." the maid directed Yami forward, and he complied.

"Oh." Yami stopped walking and spun around halfway to look at Kaiba out of the corner of his eyes. "And thanks."

Kaiba waited until he could no longer see Yami before he closed the doors. He ran his hand through his hair and exhaled heavily. He still couldn't believe he'd said any of that to Yami. After all, Kaiba wasn't exactly known for comforting anyone, if you can even call what he did **comfort**. Whatever it was, it seemed to pull Yami out from being down in the dumps. He seemed to perk right up after he'd said those things to him. In fact, he seemed to be a little _too_ perked up. The fact that what Kaiba had said had the ability to cheer him up that quickly seemed a bit too good to be true. He wondered if he'd just wasted his breath. Kaiba sat on the couch and relaxed back as he thought about it.

Then again, who knows? It might have been a good thing that Kaiba spoke to Yami about it. Not many people would be able to identify with someone who inflicts self-harm and who knew what it was like to deal with problems with a blade and clear spot of flesh.

Kaiba gripped his wrist though his long-sleeved shirt absentmindedly.

Oh yes, he knew all too well.

* * *

My, that got a bit dark. Don't worry, I'll try to lighten things up in the next chapter.

I don't know about you guys, but whenever I read/write anything I tend to visualize everything a lot. So I had a pretty hard time writing that small part about the cuts on Yami's arm! It made my stomach ache. X3

I'm such a wussssss.

ALSO! I have absolutely no idea what it's like for a cutter, so if I got anything wrong I'm sorry! I really hope I don't offend anyone or anything…

Yeah, yeah, I know: "Write what you know Hiita-chan!" But it's part of the story! I didn't want to just graze over the subject; then it would have been such a short chappy! So I did as much research as I could, and this is the result!

Thanks for reading and sorry for the random rant but thanks for reading the entire thing! And if you didn't and are just reading this part then never mind!

I'd be super grateful for some feedback you guys! I'd like to be able to improve my writing, so let me know what you think!


	11. A Crisis In Kaibaland

I'm sorry I keep posting later then I mean to! Oh well, I try.

You know, I get the feeling that this is going to end up being a pretty long story. I guess that's okay though, since none of my chapters are super long anyway. Seriously, I read some stories and people have like 5,000 words each chapter! I just can't do that; my short attention span just won't allow it I guess.

AN-TY-WAYS.

Enjoy! ;3

* * *

"Mr. Kaiba, there are news crews waiting outside that are asking for an interview."

"Tell them that I'm busy at the moment."

"Mr. Kaiba, Kisara still hasn't arrived."

"…Make sure to inform me as soon as she does."

"Mr. Kaiba, we can't seem to get one of the screens to work in the movie building…"

"Then I suggest you fix it. I didn't hire you all just for you to come running to me every time some little problem pops up; you should have the ability to solve it yourself. I expect it to be fixed before we open or you're all fired, understood?"

"Ah…yes sir."

Kaiba watched the retreating figure of one of his employees as they left. Really, did they expect him to do everything around here?

"Mr. Kaiba."

He turned in the direction of the voice he heard and saw Isono, one of his least useless employees, standing there.

"Mr. Pegasus has arrived and would like to speak with you."

Kaiba nodded and grabbed the helmet of his Kaibaman outfit before leaving the "Kaibaland Hotel" lobby.

Finally, the day had come. It was the day of the "Kaibaland Grand Opening". There was a crowd of people outside all waiting in anticipation for the gates of the amusement park to open at the scheduled time of 10:00 AM and be some of the first to experience the attractions it had in store. Everything so far seemed to be running smoothly. Of course, there were a few last minute things that popped up, but Kaiba had no trouble at all in finding quick solutions to them.

Kaiba was lead through the park until he reached the "Magic House" gift shop/magic show building. In front of it sat a black helicopter with a tall man with long, effeminate silvery hair wearing a black suit and a red turtle neck underneath standing next to it.

"Pegasus." Kaiba greeted with a nod.

"There you are, Kaiba-boy!" Kaiba twitched at the name the man had grown accustomed to calling him. He'd been calling him that ever since Kaibacorp had first began partnership with Industrial Allusions when he was twelve. And oh, how that name pissed him off.

"What the hell do you want?" he asked. Funny how seeing Pegasus almost always put him in a bad mood.

"Oh come now, no need to be so bitter. The theme park that you and brother have been focusing so much time and effort into building is finally about to open!" he practically sang, as he did nearly every other statement he made. Another reason Kaiba disliked the fruit.

"You're right. That being the case, I happen to be very busy and don't have much time to talk. So hurry up and tell me what the hell you want or I'm leaving." he demanded, patience running thin.

"Always so rash aren't you? After all these years of us working together and you still treat me this way." Pegasus said, becoming over-dramatic. "Really, Kaiba-boy, does six years of partnership mean nothing to you?-"

"That's it, I'm leaving." Kaiba spun around and started walking away, not in the mood to listen to the prima donna ramble on.

"Wait! Did you even take into consideration that maybe I actually have something important to discuss with you!?" Kaiba stopped walking and turned his head to view the man from the corner of his eye.

"If you do, I suggest you spit it out."

"The park opens in ten minutes you know. Even so, I'm afraid that we've stumbled upon a crisis…" Kaiba spun around completely to face Pegasus properly.

"What sort of 'crisis'?" He didn't like the sound of that.

"Well, I received a phone call from Kisara a few minutes ago and it seems that something apparently came up unexpectedly and she'll end up being a little late…"

"…How late, exactly?"

"By the sounds of it, she might not be here for another hour or so."

…

"What?" Kaiba growled. That woman…that woman! Oh, he could strangle that woman the next time he saw her. He should have seen this coming; that useless broad was so unreliable, Kaiba wouldn't even trust her if he was hanging off of a cliff from his imminent demise! For all he knew, she would stomp on his hands and watch him fall!

"Now, now, this isn't the time to be getting upset. We need to come up with a solution for this and fast. Those people will only wait out there for so long before they start getting restless." Pegasus stated, his usual cheerful demeanor gone. Kaiba rubbed the temple of his head with his free hand.

"We'll have to just take her part out completely and have Nightshroud run through the crowd instead shouting about world domination or something."

"But that takes the whole feel away! What about the kiss at the end?" Pegasus whined.

"We'll just have to take that part out too." Kaiba said through clenched teeth. Pegasus rubbed his chin as he thought about it.

"Kaibaman can't summon Blue Eyes White Dragon without Maiden."

Shit, that's right.

"And Nightshroud can't be defeated any other way."

That's right too. Damn.

"Well what do you suggest we do?!" Kaiba snapped.

"Find a replacement." Pegasus said casually.

"And were the hell are we going to find a damn replacement that looks anything like her? Let alone in ten fucking minutes!"

"Mr. Kaiba."

"It takes a hell of a lot longer than that for her to get into her fucking costume! And it's not like they even know the goddamn lines they have to fucking say!"

"Mr. Kaiba."

"WHAT?"

Kaiba rotated around to see what was so important and was caught off guard when he saw Yami standing next to one of his workers.

"My, my, that's quite the mouth you've got on you Kaiba." the spikey-haired teen teased.

"Sir, we found this kid sneaking around here. He claims that he's a friend of yours."

"Who are you calling a 'kid'?" Yami said in a low voice. Kaiba felt his right eye twitch and blinked to make it stop.

"What…wh…why are…" He shook his head to try and collect his thoughts. "How did you get in here?"

Yami shrugged. "Wasn't hard." Kaiba took a deep breath. Great, now he had Yami to deal with on top of all of this.

"You can go, Kemo." he ordered.

"Sir." the man said bowing his head, then taking his leave.

"This place is so cool! I can't wait until it opens!" Yami walked over to Kaiba with a large grin. "Sorry I sneaked in, I just wanted to say hi."

"Hi. Now get out."

"Hey, I was wondering if I could get in for free considering we're friends and everything. Right? And friends help friends out. Right? Especially ones who don't want to spend that much money. Right?" Yami asked, completely disregarding Kaiba's statement.

"No. You still have to pay." Kaiba stated, getting a little agitated.

"Why?" Yami frowned. "Aren't we friends?"

"Because I get the feeling that if I let you come for free, you'll end up costing me enough money to equal about ten people." Yami pouted in a way that looked rather cute, but Kaiba quickly dismissed the thought.

"_Well hello there young man!_" Kaiba almost jumped at the sudden obnoxious noise. Oh yeah, Pegasus was still here. The very chipper-looking man came over and started looking Yami over. "You're a friend of Kaiba-boy's? What's your name?"

"…Yami…"

"I see, I see." Pegasus continued to examine the teen. "And how old are you?"

"…Old enough." Yami answered, starting to look a little nervous.

"Hmm…" the man hummed. He lifted Yami's arm and inspected it. "Not bad, not bad. Slim arms…" Yami snatched his arm away from him and hugged it against his body.

"Okay, you're making me uncomfortable." Yami stated bluntly.

"How tall are you Yami?" Pegasus asked, ignoring what Yami said.

"…Are you trying to make fun of me?"

"Hm…looks close. 5''2? Or maybe even 5''3." he rambled out loud.

"I'm 5''4!" Yami corrected, looking offended.

"Perfect!" Pegasus chirped. He bent down to speak face-to-face with Yami. "Yami, I need to ask a favor of you. A simple little task really. In return, I'll give you something good!"

Yami held his arm out in front of him in an attempt to form a wall between them and said, "I don't think I want whatever you're offering me, creep."

Kaiba snorted, but was able to mostly muffle the laugh he nearly bellowed out. Pegasus shot him a glare, then returned to talking to Yami.

'It's his fault for being so damn creepy.' Kaiba thought.

"Listen," he began as calmly as he could, "Both Kaiba-boy and I are in quite a pickle and we could really use your help. If you agree to help us out, I'll let you ride on as many rides as you want afterwards. Deal?"

Yami looked Pegasus up and down a little, obviously still skeptical. He looked over at Kaiba, then back at Pegasus.

"…I guess I could try. If it'll help Kaiba…" Yami drifted off.

"Pegasus, you can't seriously be thinking what I think you are. He's a guy, in case you haven't noticed. I'm pretty sure that people will notice." Kaiba informed.

Pegasus stood up straight and said, "We don't really have much of an option, Kaiba-boy. And you'd be amazed at what my designers can do. Besides, he already agreed." Kaiba noticed a mischievous glint in his eyes when he said that last part, and based on the look Yami had on his face, so did he.

"Uh, on second thought, I think I change my mind-"

"Too late, let's go!" Pegasus cut Yami off and grabbed his arm.

"W-wait! I still don't even know what I have to doooo!" Yami yelled as he was being dragged away. Kaiba watched the two of them leave, feeling a bit dumbfounded.

'I can tell this is going to be a long day.'

xxXxx

"I can't believe you were serious."

"But of course."

Kaiba sighed as he waited in the hallway of the hotel for Yami to come out of the room he was changing in. Pegasus stood opposite to him next to the door.

"This is never going to work." he said.

"Don't be so negative, Kaiba-boy." Pegasus responded. He raised his arm and looked at the watch on his wrist, then knocked on the door the two of them were waiting for to open. "Aren't you done in there yet? We need to get started soon." The man stood back from the door and waited for a response. Finally, it opened slowly and a blushing Yami came sauntering out, white hair trailing behind him along with a long, tan, two-layered dress with silvery-blue dragon figures on the sides around his waist. He also wore matching silvery-blue wrist cuffs and ankle cuffs and a dark blue headband going around his head like a circlet.

Kaiba was a bit astonished at how attracted he felt toward Yami at that moment. He had to stop himself from having his jaw drop open when the boy came out of the room. It was a strange sensation and he did his best to bury the feeling deep within himself.

'Just focus Kaiba. Focus on the task at hand.' he tried to tell himself, but an annoying noise brought him out of his thoughts.

"AH! You make a pretty convincing girl!" Pegasus crooned.

"…I'm not sure how I feel about that statement." Yami said, starting to look a little humiliated.

'Nope, not working. I still think he looks cute.' Kaiba admitted to himself embarrassedly.

"It's not a perfect match to Kisara, but it looks close enough. Don't you think so Kaiba-boy?"

It took Kaiba a moment to realize that whatever Pegasus had said was being directed toward him, and since he hadn't really been listening he did his best to cover up the fact that he'd been thinking that Yami looked _cute_.

"…Why aren't your eyes blue?" Kaiba questioned.

"Uh, well…I tried putting the contact lenses in, but I was having trouble." Yami explained.

"Well go try again."

"I would, but I can't…"

"And why not?"

"Ehm…I kind of dropped one and we can't find it." Yami confessed. Pegasus hummed and crossed his arms.

"Don't you all have another pair of blue contacts?" Pegasus asked, leaning his head through the opened door to speak with the people inside.

"No, Mr. Pegasus. That's the only pair we have at the moment." Kaiba heard come from the room.

"Oh, this is troublesome…How will the Maiden with Eyes of Blue be Maiden with Eyes of Blue without her eyes being blue?" he wondered aloud. "Do you have any a similar shade? Grey? Or even maybe green?"

"Yeah, any color but red." Kaiba added.

"What's wrong with red?" Yami asked, sounding a little insulted.

"…Maiden's eyes aren't red."

"Well they aren't grey or green either." Yami countered.

"Red stands out too much." Kaiba pointed out.

"But bright green doesn't?"

Kaiba pinched the bridge of his nose. "Nightshroud's eyes glow red."

"But aren't they blue normally?"

"Yami, enough! You're driving me crazy here." Kaiba snapped.

Pegasus cleared his throat. "Anyway, do you have some other contact lenses?"

"Well, I'll have to check…" the woman said.

"Mr. Kaiba. Mr. Pegasus."

The two men turned their attention to the employee that had just spoken from behind them.

"What is it, Isono?" Kaiba asked.

"There are quite a few people complaining about Kaibaland not being open yet."

Kaiba groaned. How did everything turn to hell so quickly?

"I suppose we'll just have to make do with this." Pegasus decided. "We need to open. It's already 10:24." Kaiba looked at Yami. Those eyes really did stand out a lot with such light hair and clothes.

"What are we going to do about his eyes?" he questioned. Pegasus looked at Yami as well for a moment.

"We'll have to make some adjustments in the script, but I think we can make it work." He said with a nod. "Now let's get going! We haven't another minute to lose! Tell everyone to get into place Isono." The man bowed and left.

"Wait, we're starting? What am I supposed to do?" Yami asked.

"Just come with me Yami. Kaiba, you should be able to figure out what to do when it starts." Reluctantly, Kaiba nodded and watched the two of them as they left, eyes lingering on the spot Yami had been.

Why did he feel so strange whenever he thought about Yami? It wasn't a bad feeling necessarily; it was just…different. It was different that seeing him made Kaiba's mind go blank, yet full of random crap that really shouldn't matter. It was different that seeing him smile almost made Kaiba smile as well. It was different that Kaiba always had to be more cautious not to act without thinking like he normally would when he was around. It was different that even when Kaiba wasn't around Yami, the teen would somehow weave his way into his thoughts and make him become distracted.

It was definitely different that the thought of having to kiss Yami for the Grand Opening Ceremony didn't disgust him like he thought it should.

He hoped he wouldn't get distracted while they were out there. He also hoped no one would notice that Maiden with Eyes of Blue is actually Maiden with Eyes of Red.

'I wonder if this will work.' he thought to himself. He shrugged. 'Only one way to find out.'

* * *

*Gasp!* A cliffy? :O

Sorry about the cliffhanger. Like I said before, short attention span. No, I'm definitely not bored with the story. I just think/write so slow that it'd be a lot longer than it normally is if I made the chapters longer. And no, it's not that I'm a slow typist, I just have a lot of trouble putting what I think into words. :P

And I think this is a good spot to end the chapter!

How did they get all of Yami's hair to fit under the wig anyway? XD

Wow, I talk a lot at the end of these things, don't I? My bad!

Thanks for reading!

I'd love some feedback from you guys! 3


	12. Maiden With Eyes Of Red

*gasp!* 10 reviews? :O

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG! Thanks youuuuu you guuuuys! I loves youuuu!

Oi, sorry about the inconsistent updating. Stuff's been happening and I started school again. *cries*

Summer! Come back to meeeee!

Anyway, thanks again for the 10 reviews! I appreciate it! Now:

Enjoy! ;3

**REVISION: For those of you that already read this chapter, I'll save you the trouble of having to do so again by saying the only thing that changed is the role of Nightshroud was changed to Jououchi instead of Fubuki.** I know that in the actual show, Fubuki was the one with that outfit and the mask and everything, but it was weird to have one random character from GX in here, so I changed it. Also, I had something planned with Jounouchi so I had to fit him in somewhere!

* * *

A large group of anonymous figures were gathered together outside of a large steel gate, murmurs of apprehension and impatience resonating through the air around them. A large portion of them were in their teens, some were young adults, and some looked to have recently hit the mid-life point. Of course, the majority of the crowd was taken up by restless children whining to their parents about how they wanted to go in already.

Suddenly, a flash of purple whipped through the air.

"Hey! What's that?"

"What's what?"

"That!"

"What?"

"_THAT! _By the statue!"

A child started yelling and pointing wildly at something through the gate toward the twenty-foot tall Blue Eyes White Dragon statue that stood in front of a wide set of steps leading to the ticket booths. In front of it was a tall man wearing a long cloak that was a gray-toned teal and purple on the inside with thin, yellow lines going around the edges of the outside. He wore a black mask that covered the top half of his face that represented a dragon, its sharp edges holding his long blond hair out of his face. The mask had blue diamond-shaped eye holes and a single red jewel on the forehead. There was a gasp.

"It's Nightshroud!" one kid yelled. Shrieks of horror and astonishment bellowed from the crowd as many people tried to push themselves closer to the gate to view the scene that was about to take place.

"And he's got Maiden!" another shouted. "Maiden" was draped over the man's shoulder with his hands tied together and a blindfold over his eyes. A collective gasp was heard among the group of people. The masked man smirked wickedly.

"Yes! It's me, Nightshroud! I've taken over this body and soon, I'll take over the world!" He yelled. There were more shrieks and a few "Noooo!"s as Nightshroud laughed manically. Once he finally finished his cackling, he turned his head toward "Maiden" and said, "And _YOU'RE_ going to help me!"

More screaming. Quite possibly some crying too, hard to tell.

There was a short period of silence on the opposite side of the gate were it could be assumed a line was supposed to be said. Ever-so-slightly, Nightshroud nudged Yami.

"Ah-em-n…n-never!" he stuttered out, raising his voice a semi-tone or two to sound more like how Maiden really did. It was close, and any argument that it wasn't could easily be dismissed due to the fact that it was so noisy.

"I'm afraid you don't have much say in the matter, Maiden!" Nightshroud howled, and he threw Yami down to the ground in a very convincing way. Actually it looked a bit painful, but nevertheless Yami sat up on his knees and held a defensive pose. "Now! All I have to do is absorb all of your powers, and the world will be mine in no time!" he went on with another round of maniacal laughter to follow. Once finished, he raised his right hand and slowly inched it closer to Yami, saying, "And no one can stop me!"

There. That's probably his cue.

Nightshroud's hand was centimeters away from Yami when a card came flying toward him. He narrowly dodged the projectile as it passed him, and the card boomeranged around and was caught by a familiar white-cloaked hero.

"_Kaibaman!_" Nightshroud spat venomously.

A wave of cheers sounded when Kaiba pointed a dramatic finger at the masked man and said, "Not a chance, Nightshroud!" Nightshroud gritted his teeth and hoped back a few feet when Kaiba ambled closer as they waited for the crowd to settle down a bit.

"If you honestly thought that I would do nothing as you attempted to corrupt the world, you're sadly mistaken!" Kaiba boomed, sending the crowd into another hyped-up frenzy. They paused to let the crowd calm down again, and Kaiba happened to glance down at Yami and saw that he was wearing a goofy looking grin.

'You idiot, stop smiling.' he thought. Not too long after, Yami pursed his lips to hide the fact, but the corners of his mouth were still lifted a little. Kaiba resisted the urge to shake his head and decided to look away to prevent the urge from becoming too strong.

"How nice of you to join us Kaibaman!" Nightshroud yelled with a smirk, pulling Kaiba from his thoughts. "You think you can stop me? I'd like to see you try!" he said, holding his arms out. He rose them in the air and chanted, "_Come creature of darkness; creature of shadow! Give me your power and win this battle!_ Red Eyes Black Dragon! I command you to appear!"

Above their heads, a large dragon materialized, black wings spread and blood-red eyes gleaming fearsomely. Those crimson eyes sure did remind Kaiba an awful lot of Yami. The way they seemed to shine so brightly…

"_Dark Mega Flare!_"

Kaiba started, then was just able to jump out of the way of the ball of red light that was shot at him. Damn, he needed to pay attention.

"Maiden!" he shouted as he dashed toward Yami.

"Huh? Oh, right! Eh…um…y-y-yes!" Yami stood up, careful not to trip on the long dress, and hesitantly ripped the piece of cloth that shielded his eyes from the world from his face. He kept his eyes closed as he held his still-bounded hands out in front of him and pretended to be concentrating.

Kaiba halted to a stop right in front of him and gently placed his left hand on top of Yami's, the contact making Kaiba's stomach do a weird flip. Trying his best to ignore it, he raised the card in his right hand above his head, took a deep breath, and yelled, "_Beast of hope; beast of light! Listen well and hear my plight! I ask of you to offer your aid! And rid us danger, both small and grave!_ Blue Eyes White Dragon! Lend me your strength!"

A flash of white light shined and a humongous dragon appeared, metallic white armor-like scales across the body shining like diamonds in the sun, and sparkling sapphires for eyes. The creature roared ferociously once it had materialized completely. At first everyone merely gaped in awe, then they went crazy; cheers, whistles, and whoops and hollers blasted out from the other side of the gate.

Nightshroud scoffed, bearing his teeth in frustration. "You think that thing scares me? Red Eyes, attack! _Dark Mega Flare!_" he growled. The black dragon obeyed, sending another ball of red light at the opposing monster. Blue Eyes dodged the attack easily, veering to the right.

Kaiba smirked and said, "Hn. Let's show them what true strength is Blue Eyes!" The creature roared again, ready to take action. "_Burst Stream of Destruction!_" he yelled. The glistening beast threw its head forward and a ray of white light blasted out of its mouth, hitting the lesser dragon dead on. Red Eyes snarled in pain and fell to the ground before vanishing. Smoke from the blast enveloped around them, and in it Nightshroud could be heard yelling, "Don't think this is over Kaibaman! I **will **be victorious!"

Once the clouds of smoke cleared up, Nightshroud was no longer anywhere to be found. Kaiba removed his hand from Yami's and waited for the cheering to die down again. When it finally did, Yami unexpectedly began falling forward. Kaiba caught him and steadied his balance, concern rapidly growing for the boy's safety. Then Kaiba remembered where he was and what was going on and mentally kicked himself for getting unfocused again.

"Maiden." he said, trying his best not to show his current inner frustration. "Oh, right. Summoning Blue Eyes drains most of your powers." he continued.

"Y…yes." Yami confirmed, still keeping his eyes closed which could be mistaken for being exhausted and not because his eyes are the complete wrong color. "It seems you've rescued me yet again…K-Kaibaman." he stated after a few seconds.

This was the moment. The moment Kaiba had both been dreading and been interested in. He had to kiss Yami. And there was no backing out of it now.

The fluttering pain he felt in his stomach realizing how close the two of them were made Kaiba hesitate to do it. During this brief period of hesitation, he took the opportunity to study Yami's facial features. His face looked soft and almost child-like; his full cheeks made his face seem round. His nose was small and delicate as were his lips. Kaiba swallowed as he began moving closer, eyes locked onto his lips. He noticed a light blush start to form on Yami's face as he inched his way closer. Yami knew what was coming.

He went for it. It was a short kiss, but nonetheless it sent a shiver running down his back when their lips touched. As soon as Kaiba pulled away he had the desire to press his mouth back onto Yami's, but he quickly regained control of himself before he did such a thing.

He stood up straighter and waited for their cue to leave. He didn't think he could stay like this much longer without doing something that he'd surely regret. The crowd continued to go crazy, even when the Blue Eyes White Dragon that was still there came flying down and landed right behind the gate, blocking the mass's view of Kaiba and Yami.

Quickly, Kaiba began speed walking toward the ticket booths behind them, guiding a now beet red Yami there as well. They slid pass the booths and stood behind one of them as Blue Eyes dissipated with a final roar, creating the illusion that the two of them had disappeared.

Kaiba breathed out a sigh as the cheering continued. Good, it was over now.

"Eh-um…" Kaiba looked at Yami. He slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Kaiba. "That was…interesting…"

xxXxx

"Gee little guy, I didn't mean to drop you that hard."

"Yeah, yeah…"

After the Grand Opening Ceremony, Kaiba had noticed Yami holding onto his shoulder and asked him what was wrong with it. He said that it hurt a little from when "Nightshroud" had thrown him so Kaiba took him back to the hotel and had one of the nurses there take a look at it. Turns out the thing was dislocated.

"Really Jounouchi, I know you were trying to make it believable but that doesn't mean you should be reckless about it." Kaiba scolded. The man who played the role of Nightshroud, Jounouchi, rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"I know! But hey, he's lighter than Kisara; I think I just miscalculated the amount of force I needed to use." he replied.

"I think you miscalculated the amount of intelligence you have."

"Hey~"

"Alright Mr. Yami, I think the Ketorolac has kicked in by now. Ready for me to pop it back in?" the nurse spoke up.

Yami groaned and wearily said, "…sure." The nurse nodded and walked closer to him. Kaiba observed as she raised his elbow to a 90 degree angle and applied traction away from him. She took one hand off or the elbow and placed it on his forearm.

"Sit up straight now. And make sure to let me know if it hurts too badly."

Yami nodded.

"Alright, here we go." The woman warned and started rotating his arm outward, making sure to be careful with it. Yami's face scrunched up a little when:

Pop!

Kaiba frowned at the loud noise that came from Yami's back. The nurse smiled and let go of his arm, taking a step back.

"There, all done. That wasn't too bad was it?" she asked. Yami gripped his shoulder and moved his arm around in a circle. Well, at least he seemed to be better now.

"Yay! Good job!" Jounouchi cheered with a few seconds of clapping. "You want a lollipop to make you feel better?" he joked.

"Why, you…" Yami growled, holding the back of his hand up with a don't-make-me-back-hand-you face.

"Kidding!" Jounouchi said, holding his hands up in surrender. The nurse laughed and started gathering her things.

Kaiba heard the door to the room open and turned to see who it was.

"Nii-sama! That was cool! But I thought we said we were going to-"

The raven-haired boy stopped suddenly and stared at Yami.

Crap. Yami was still in the Maiden costume.

"…Hi Mokuba." Yami greeted. Mokuba continued to stare at him, then looked at Kaiba, then back at Yami.

"Yami? Why are you-? How did-?" Mokuba questioned with incomplete sentences, trying to piece together the scene that lay before him "…Were _you_ the one that was out there?" Slowly, Yami nodded his head. Mokuba stared at him for a few more seconds, then his face broke out into a large grin. "OH? So then you were also the one who kissed Nii-sama-"

"What did you want Mokuba?" Kaiba asked irritably. Mokuba sent him a sly look. "…Well?" he pressed. That look was making him uncomfortable. Mokuba snickered.

"Fine, I'll let this go for now." he said, still grinning like a mad man. "Nii-sama, Pegasus said that you and Kisara need to go greet people at the 'Kaiba Dome'." Kaiba sighed. He sure didn't feel like having to deal with all of those people.

He crossed his arms over his chest and said, "Fine, go tell him that we'll be there soon."

"Oooookaaaaay~" Mokuba chirped. He gave Yami one last smile before leaving.

"Oh, hey Kisara." he heard Mokuba say just outside of the room. He noticed Yami's face light up suddenly; probably him thinking that he was about to meet the one and only "ray of sunshine" Kisara that everyone thought she was. Oh, was he about to be let down.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE!" the said woman screamed in a way that made Kaiba want to jab knives into his ears so he would go deaf to refrain from ever being in danger of having to listen to that voice ever again.

…

...

"Just treating the wounded." Jounouchi said, trying to rid the room of any more awkward silence. "Well… we're not really 'treating' anymore. And not a 'wound' per se." he rambled on. Kisara narrowed her eyes, blue becoming fiery-looking.

"I don't care about that!" she yelled.

"…Then why'd you ask?"

"What I want to know," she pointed at Yami. "is who the hell that is!"

"Make up your mind will you?"

"Just who do you think you are, huh? Trying to steal the spotlight from me like that!" Yami didn't say anything; shock hindering his ability to do anything.

"You're the one who didn't show up on time." Kaiba filled in for Yami. Kisara glared at him.

"I was very busy doing something! My friend really needed me!"

"Oh, so is that what that is on the corner of your mouth?" Kaiba countered. Interesting, not only was she useless, but she was also apparently a slut. Kisara jumped and quickly used her sleeve to wipe the dried up, white substance from her face.

"I-I…I was eating some…ice cream!" she said, attempting to cover up her tracks.

"You were eating something all right." Kaiba retorted. She sent him a look that only a spawn of Satan would be able to pull off, then turned her attention back to Yami who was still frozen in astonishment.

"YOU!" she bellowed. Yami flinched at the sudden attention. "Take off that costume! I never gave you permission to wear it you little wench!" Yami looked at her nervously, a bead of sweat on his cheek. "After that, I want you OUT OF HERE! Got it?" she finished. Kisara took a final look around the room at the people who were all staring wide-eyed at her (not including Kaiba, this was all too expected to him), scoffed, then left, slamming the door behind her.

What a bitch.

"…What…" Kaiba and Jounouchi both turned to look at Yami. Looks like he finally gained the capability to talk.

"What just happened?"

* * *

Poor Yami. I'm so mean to him. He's such a bishie though, ain't he?

So happy about the 10 reviews! Now let's see if I can get 20! :DDDD

Thanks for reading!

Please review my amigos! They make me smile to read!


	13. Power Down

**MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE REVISION IN CHAPTER 12 BEFORE READING.** Please and thanks!

Wow. It's been two weeks since I last updated. My apologies! I had planned on doing it last weekend, but I got really sick. :(

Just so you all know, I plan on updating at least once a week, probably every Saturday. I'd love to update more often than that, but I really need to focus on school. My classes are so tough this year! But I won't complain, challenge accepted!

Enjoy! ;3

*Steamed monkfish liver. A Japanese delicacy.

**Thick cubes of fatty pork belly simmered at a low temperature for a long time in a sweet sauce.

***Grilled eel coated with a sweet sauce on top of rice. Grilled eel tends to be love-it or hate-it.

* * *

"God, am I glad that's over." a woman with long, white hair groaned.

The click-clacks of heeled shoes bounced around a short hallway as two figures made their way down it; one being significantly taller than the other.

"Children are just _soooo_ annoying."

Kaiba glared hard through the blue eyeholes of his helmet at Kisara. Hearing her whinny voice complain instantly made him want to reach over and smack the shit out of her. He had to deal with the loud, obnoxious group of kids as they had their pictures taken with them several times by elated parents too, but he wasn't about to complain about it. It was just part of their job.

"I can barely stand being around them!" An overdramatic sigh. "I'm so glad I don't have any younger siblings. Really, I wonder how you deal with it Kaiba."

He bit down on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from snapping at Kisara. Bringing up Mokuba just made his hatred for the woman intensify.

'What can I say, I had a lot of practice dealing with your whinny ass.' he said to himself. Yes, just like dealing with a child, Kaiba would have to just ignore her shenanigans until she learned that he wasn't putting up with it.

The two of them continued down the hall in silence, to Kaiba's relief, until they got to a plain, white door. Kisara wasted no time in swinging the door open and stepping inside. Kaiba did so as well, closing the door behind him.

Once the Grand Opening Ceremony had finished and Yami had his shoulder looked at, Kaiba and Kisara had gone to the "KaibaDome" to greet fans and to encourage them to try out the virtual system that was set up there. It worked like a charm, kids were lined up to use the machinery and the building was filled with the sound of kids pleading to their parents for money to use what was basically a larger form of a duel disk. Sure, the virtual system that was in the "KaibaDome" was a little different; you could play against the computer on a set level of your choice, but aside from that it was essentially the same thing.

After about two hours or so they had gone down a single hallway in the building to take a break from the pandemonium in the only vacant room available: the control room. Not exactly a place of comfort, but it was the only place to go at the time.

Kisara made a heavy sigh as she plopped down in one of the empty chairs.

"So where is everyone anyway?" she asked. Kaiba removed the dragon themed helmet from his head and rubbed his right temple where the headgear had been digging into his skull.

"Lunch." he answered dully.

"And where is our lunch exactly? Do you really expect me to continue on an empty stomach? Well?"

Just before Kaiba had the chance to tell her to shut the hell up before he took one of the computer chords and strangled her until her eyeballs popped out, there was a knock at the door.

"Mr. Kaiba? Miss White?" he heard come from the opposite side of the door.

"Come in." he ordered gruffly.

The silver handle to the door twisted and a man who looked to be in his forties came inside. He held his arms close to his body as he bowed briefly and said, "You both must be quite hungry after all of this chaos, so if you would like, lunch has been brought to you. Curtesy of Mr. Pegasus."

"Oh, yes! I'm absolutely starved! Thank you very much!" Kisara crooned, putting on the appearance of someone who isn't a total bitch. The man nodded and stepped to the side as another, slightly younger looking man wheeled in a silver cart covered in expensive foods. "Oh, how lovely!" she pretended to praise.

"Enjoy." the man said. The two then bowed and left, shutting the door. Kisara got up from the spot she had been sitting in and began inspecting the food.

"Hmph. Couldn't they have cooked this *Ankimo better? And what's with the **Kakuni? Are they trying to make me fat?"

Wow, more complaining. What a surprise.

"Oh well, I suppose this will just have to do. But really though, ***Unadon? Why Unadon? And, my god, would it kill them to-"

Kaiba decided to block out whatever else she had to say. He didn't feel like getting a headache at the moment. It was then when he noticed a pot of black coffee sitting on the cart and almost cracked a smile of liberation.

Almost.

He promptly grabbed a cup from the cart and poured some of the dark liquid into it. He set the pot back down and took a sip, letting the smooth, bitter taste coat his tongue before letting it run down his throat and went for another mouthful right after.

"Kaiba." he vaguely heard come from behind him. He turned to look at Kisara who was pouting in his direction. "Are you listening to me?"

"No." he answered bluntly. Her frown grew and she whipped her head to the side, sticking her nose in the air with a "Hmph!". Kaiba ignored the gesture and went back to his little cup of heaven. He was about to take another drink, but froze just before the cup reached his mouth when he heard some kind of metallic clank. He looked at Kisara to see if it was her who made the noise, but she looked just as confused as him. He scanned the room, seeing nothing more than a few computers and a screen on the wall. He furrowed his eyebrows when he heard it again, a bit quieter this time. Nothing seemed to have moved in the room, so he rotated around to the door behind him. Just as he thought, another suspicious sound came from it, this time sounding like a heavy thud.

Kaiba put his cup down and sauntered over to the door. He listened for a moment for any more signs of movement, hearing some rustling and what sounded like shoes sliding across the ground. He glowered heavily and pulled the door open, ready to chew the head off of whoever dared sneak around back here.

He was surprised to see a head of spikey hair and bright red eyes looking back at him.

"…Yami?" he said. "What the...?"

"Yo." the boy greeted.

"Hey!" Kaiba looked behind himself at a pissed looking Kisara. "What are you doing here kid? Get lost! I thought I told those bodyguards not to let anyone back here…"

"Yeah, they were pretty rude when I tried coming back here." Yami said.

"And how _did_ you get back here exactly?" Kaiba questioned, crossing his arms over his chest. He tried to sound angry about the fact that the boy was back there, but in reality he was almost excited about it. Strange.

Yami smirked mischievously and pointed his index finger at the ceiling. Kaiba looked up to where the runt had motioned and saw that the cover to the ceiling vent had been removed. He snapped his head back down to Yami and, after a moment, said, "You didn't."

"You bet I did." Yami confirmed, striding past Kaiba and into the room. "I had no choice! They wouldn't let me in!"

"What do you think you're doing you brat!? You can't come in here! Now leave!" Kisara shouted. Yami stopped walking and tilted his head to the side.

"I can't? Why not?"

"Because this room is off-" Kisara cut her sentence off as her eyes widened. "W-wait a second. Aren't you…? Weren't you the one who…? The little monster that was posing as me at the Grand Opening?"

Yami scratched the back of his head shyly. "Ah…yes. That was me."

"But! You're a boy?!" she yelled.

"…Last time I checked, yes."

Kisara stared at Yami for a short while before turning to Kaiba and crying, "Then that means-! You kissed a boy?"

Kaiba lifted his cup of coffee and took a sip, avoiding her gaze in an attempt to evade the question.

"And like a twelve year old boy at that!" she continued.

"I'm fifteen!" Yami corrected.

"Whatever! The point is: Kaiba kissed a fucking boy!"

"Well I mean, you were really late getting here-"

"Oh don't you pull that crap on me!"

"Whoa! Where's the fire? What's with all of the shouting in here?" Kaiba twisted around and saw Jounouchi standing at the still wide open door. "Oh, hey there little guy." he said toward Yami, who waved hello warily.

"Stop acting so buddy-buddy with this **freak** Jounouchi!" Kisara spewed, the insult making Kaiba's blood boil.

"Hey, hey! What's with the name calling? What crawled up your dress and bit you in the butt?" Jounouchi questioned. Kisara pointed accusatively at Kaiba.

"He _kissed_ a _boy_! Like, what the fuck?"

"Caaaalm dowwwn Kisara." Jounouchi attempted. "Someone had to do it."

"But a boy? You guys couldn't find a girl to do it?" she continued. She looked back over at Kaiba and yelled, "What are you, gay?!"

Kaiba lowered his coffee cup away from his face and glared down at her until he felt her presence turn from fired up to frightened, hopefully making her fear for her life. How dare she say something like that out loud? Especially with that tone of voice, like the thought disgusted her? Even if the accusation had been true, the unnecessary dose of homophobia that came with it was more than unwelcomed.

"Ahem."

Kaiba tore his gaze away from the woman that had turned from a tolerable nuisance to an insignificant pest worth less than the dirt on his shoe in two seconds flat. Yami looked at Kisara, then Kaiba, then back at Kisara.

"I didn't come here with the intent to cause an argument; I have an important reason for being here. So important that I crawled through those vents to get here!"

…

"Well, what's the reason then?" Jounouchi asked.

"What I need is…YOU!" he pointed at Kisara. "To sign my poster." Kaiba placed his hand on his forehead. Even after everything that just happened too…

"No." Kisara spat.

"…Why not?" Kisara folded her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Why in the world would I sign a poster for _YOU_ of all people?" Yami tapped his chin as he thought about the question.

"Well…in a way I did you a favor by filling in for you at the Grand Opening…"

"Definitely not. I didn't ask you to do that, nor would I ever have."

"Oh come on, I came all this way!"

"No means no. Now get out, twerp."

"Is that all you know how to do? Insult people?" Yami asked idly.

"Go!" she ordered.

Kaiba was about to say something when he saw Yami turn around and begin walking away, but chose to keep quiet. No way was Yami really about to let this go. He was sure the boy had something planned.

As if on cue, Yami stopped walking and said, "You know, there's been this rumor going around about you Kisara."

Kisara narrowed her eyes. "What sort of 'rumor'?" she asked, unable to keep herself from wondering if her reputation had been damaged.

"Oh, you know…" he began nonchalantly, waving his hand around. "Just that some of the employees around saw you get here with that one gentleman…what was his name?" Yami turned his head to look at the Kisara and smirked. "Nezbitt?" Kisara flinched. Yami's smile grew. "Yes, that sounds about right. It's a mystery why it is that you arrived with a man so much older than you, not to mention how disheveled you looked when you got out of his car. Why did you, I wonder? Why, why, why…"

Kisara gritted her teeth. "What exactly are you getting at, runt?"

"It sure would be a shame if someone were to find out what exactly happened between the two of you, wouldn't it?" Yami pressed.

Jounouchi put his hand over his mouth to hide his smile of astonishment and watched the sudden standoff in anticipation. Kaiba was surprised himself; this was certainly a turn of events.

"I-I…I don't know what you're talking about!" Kisara denied.

"Why you were late…"

Kisara growled.

"What that was on your face…"

The room became dreadfully quiet as Yami and Kisara remained in the deadlock. Kisara smiled cagily as she finally said, "You wouldn't dare."

"Hm?" Yami wondered aloud with a smile of amusement. He was clearly enjoying this.

"You wouldn't dare even **_think_** about telling anyone anything." She tried convincing herself, obviously fearful for her status. Yami continued to look at her for a few more seconds, then snorted with delight.

"Well then, I guess you have nothing to worry about." he condescended, turning his back to her. "_If you're so sure about that._" Yami only took one step toward the exit before:

"FINE!" Kisara yelled. Yami paused mid-step. "Give me the damn poster!"

Yami spun around, not even attempting to hide the large grin of satisfaction on his face. "My, how generous of you Kisara!" he teased.

"Shut the hell up."

Yami chuckled and walked back over to the woman, grabbing the rolled up, glossy picture from the internal pocket of his oversized, black jacket and the same permanent marker that Kaiba had used before from the pocket of his faded, dark grey skinny jeans, handing both to Kisara after unrolling the poster.

Grudgingly, she snatched the items from the boy, set the poster down on one of the computer desks, and quickly scribbled her name down on it. Yami peered over her shoulder as she did so, saying, "Put 'Maiden' too." She groaned and did as he said, jotting the word underneath her name.

Yami took the marker and poster back from her and said, "Why thank you very much." Jounouchi stood next to Yami and gazed at the picture.

"Wow kid, impressive. You even got Kaiba to sign it!" Yami smiled proudly, nodding his head as he showed the poster off to him. "Alright," Jounouchi began, "go ahead. Give me the marker. I know you want me to sign it too, don't you?"

Yami blinked at the blond a few times and held the poster away from him. "Not really, no." he answered truthfully.

"W…wait, why not?" Jounouchi asked, looking offended.

"Because you play as the bad guy."

"So?"

"_SO_, the bad guys can't sign the same poster as the good guys. Duh." Yami answered like it should be obvious.

"Well…why didn't you get a poster of Nightshroud too then?"

"Because Kaibaman's way cooler than Nightshroud. That's why."

"Hey!"

Kaiba snorted. Jounouchi shouldn't have been surprised with that answer. It was true after all. Kaiba already knew it was true, yet the fact that Yami had said it made Kaiba's heart do a weird flutter thing that he wished would go away.

"What are you laughing at?" Jounouchi asked furiously.

"Don't get mad at me, I'm not the one who said it." Kaiba said, taking another drink of his now lukewarm coffee to try and distract his brain.

Just then, the lights flickered until they shut completely off along with all of the computers. The sudden power dysfunction caught Kaiba by surprise, and he froze in place as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. The room was shrouded in dark, the only source of light being a small glow coming from the hallway.

"What's going on?" he heard Yami ask.

"Maybe you angered the gods by saying that Kaibaman is better than Nightshroud and now this is your punishment?" Jounouchi said.

"Har, har."

Kaiba set his coffee down on the silver cart in front of him and walked as best he could over to one of the computers. He felt around until his fingers stroked the buttons on the back of the machine, and he pressed the first one, holding it there for a moment. When nothing happened, he attempted rebooting the computer, but to no avail.

"Kaiba?" Yami said. "Was this supposed to happen? Is this part of the Grand Opening Ceremony or something?"

Kaiba clenched his hands into fists. A thousand possibilities as to why the electricity suddenly failed swirled around in his head. It just didn't make sense. Everything seemed to be in order earlier, so why the sudden change?

"Kaiba?"

He twisted his body around toward the door. There was only one way to find out what had caused this.

"No." he said, and left.

* * *

Whoa! What happened I wonder? Like I don't know? X3

Yami, you're so mischievous!

Kisara, you're so mean! Calling Yami names…

Kaiba, you're so sarcastic!

And Jounouchi, you're so…unpopular! Some things never change…

I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing!

I'd be super ecstatic if you reviewed! You know, tell me what you like and don't like about the story so far. It'll help me be a better writer!


	14. Unwelcomed Guest

Yay! Another chapter! Wow, this one's longer than all the others!

I hope this chapter doesn't seem too choppy; I kind of worked on it off and on throughout the weekend. Oh well!

Enjoy! ;3

* * *

"Why didn't the backup generator work?"

"I'm not sure, sir."

"Has anyone gone to the breaker room to turn the power back on manually?"

"Yes sir, someone just went not too long ago."

"Well what's taking so long then?"

"Ah, I…we were waiting to see if the generator would kick in-"

"It should have been done immediately! I'm trying to run a company here, there's no time for waiting! Is that understood?"

"Y-yes. Sir."

Kaiba took a deep breath as he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. Why hadn't the generator turned the power back on in the "KaibaDome"? The Bi-fuel generator was brand new, so no way could the battery have failed already. Not only that, but why did the power shut off in the first place?

He could hear the many complaints of children and teens fill the shadowed room as he scanned the area with nothing more than a few flashlights being held by employees to cut through the darkness. It had been over ten minutes since the power shut down, and the crowd was beginning to get rowdy.

"What's going on?" he heard one kid say.

"Come on! I wanna duel!" another yelled. There was a sigh of impatience next to him and he looked to see Kisara's dimly lit figure standing there with her arms crossed.

"Ugh. This sucks."

Kaiba glared at her but said nothing. Like he didn't know that already?

"Mr. Kaiba." he heard someone say behind him.

"What is it?"

A scrawny looking man with a balding head bowed for a brief moment before replying, "Sir, I went to check the breaker and...well, um…"

"Well what? Spit it out."

The man cleared his throat uncomfortably and said, "Well, it seems that all of the fuses are…they're missing."

Kaiba blinked at the man, questioning the validity of that statement.

"What do you mean, 'missing'?" he asked in a low voice to verify what he just heard.

"All of the slots are empty."

"And why the hell are they empty?" Kaiba growled.

"I'm not sure why. Someone must have taken them all out, but I don't know what their motive for doing so is." Kaiba shut his eyes and began rubbing his forehead.

"Why haven't you replaced them if they're all missing?" he asked. There was no time to try and figure out what happed to the original ones, they needed to get the power back on now. Something like that could wait.

"I tried to go get the extra set we have, but the room that they're in won't open." Kaiba opened his eyes and looked at the man.

"Won't open?"

"Yes. Almost like it's being barricaded."

Kaiba narrowed his eyes and, in a dangerously low voice, said, "Listen, I don't care if you have to break the damn door down. Get in there and get the fuses or you're fired. How fucking hard is it to do that? Now go."

"Y-yes sir. Right away."

Kaiba watched the skinny man speed walk down the hallway. Once he was no longer in sight, he turned back around and pinched the bridge of his nose as he analyzed his current situation.

The "KaibaDome" had no power. The building was full of unhappy customers due to this. The backup generator didn't turn the electricity back on like it was supposed to, and seeing how the machine hadn't been there for more than a couple days, the only explanation for its failure would be that it had been tampered with in some way. Apparently all of the fuses in the breaker had been taken, and the room that the replacement fuses were in was being barricaded.

Kaiba was sure that this was sabotage. Someone was trying to ruin him. Kaiba didn't know if it was someone who was working for him or if it was some outside force, but what he did know is that he would make whoever dared do something like this wish they never even knew who he was. He would make sure of it.

"I wonder what could have caused this." he heard Yami say above the loud buzz of the aggravated crowd.

"Yeah, what's the deal Kaiba? Did you forget to pay the power bill?" Jounouchi joked in an irritating voice. Kaiba shot a dark glare over to the blonde and saw him cringe. Good, maybe he'd shut up.

"…Perhaps now isn't the best time to joke around Jounouchi." Yami suggested.

"R…right."

Kaiba glanced at his phone, the screen's light shining up on his face. Nearly twenty minutes had gone by and still no electricity. This couldn't go on for much longer or else…

"That's it, I'm leaving!"

He looked up in the direction of the yelled statement.

"I'm tired of waiting!" a teenager shouted. Kaiba watched as the boy began marching toward the exit door, obviously peeved. Great, he was going to start losing customers because of this. Oh, once he figured out who the culprit was…

The angered teen was no more than two feet away from the exit when suddenly a large, heavy steel gate came sliding down the door, a loud bang sounding when it crashed into the ground making the boy jump. The same thing happened to the door next to it. And every other exit was soon covered by a gate as well.

"W-what's going on?" Kisara asked.

Kaiba's eyes went wide and he looked around the room frantically searching for an explanation. The emergency lockdown had been activated somehow, but how was that even possible if the power wasn't working?

The building became dreadfully quiet as frightened children huddled around their parents, confusion painted on their faces. There was a loud click, and all of the lights flickered on. Kaiba perused the perimeter, his eyes eventually locking onto a tall figure standing on one of the dueling platforms. The form was cloaked in a mulberry purple suit and long locks of pink hair trailed down his back. The man looked straight back at Kaiba, and finally he said, "What's the matter Kaiba? Having some technical difficulties?" A wave of whispers swirled through the room as parents and children tried to understand what was happening.

Kaiba clenched his fists and instantly knew who the man was. That thick German accent was hard to misplace when it was paired with that hair.

"Siegfried." Kaiba spat like the name caused a bad taste to form in his mouth.

"Sieg who? Jounouchi questioned.

"SiegFRIED." Yami corrected.

"Yeah, no I got that. But who the hell is Siegfried?"

The pink-haired man grinned down at Kaiba, emerald eyes glistening with malice.

"Oh, what a surprise! The one and only 'Kaibaman' remembers my name!" Siegfried said dramatically. His smile grew. "I'm honored."

"What do you want Schroider?" Kaiba yelled. "Are you the one responsible for this power outage?"

Siegfried narrowed his eyes at Kaiba; a silent taunt saying "And if I am? Just what are you going to do about it chump?". Kaiba's rage began growing rapidly.

"Answer me!"

"Little old me?" Siegfried said, reaching his hand up and flipping his hair back unnecessarily. "I simply couldn't."

"Don't play dumb!" Kaiba snarled, taking a step forward. "You and I both know that you have the technological capability to do something like this! Now confess!" he finished, pointing at him dramatically. Siegfried smirked.

"If you already know that I have the ability to do this, then why ask?" Kaiba glared at him but didn't say anything. A few moments passed, then Siegfried added, "It was such a simple thing to do really. Simple when you have this." He held up a small black thumb drive that had a familiar "KC" written in silver letters on the front. Kaiba did a double take. He was about to say something but Yami beat him to it.

"You!" the spikey-haired teen yelled. "You're the one who stole that from me that day!?"

"Me?" Siegfried question with a fake innocence lacing his voice. "Goodness no. I would never dare do something so terrible."

"But you would pay someone else to do it, wouldn't you?" Yami asked with a dangerous smile. Siegfried said nothing, but matched Yami's smile with one of his own.

"Hand it over Siegfried!" Kaiba demanded. "I don't have to time to play your little games!"

"You want this back, do you?" Siegfried turned his attention back to Kaiba. "Well then, how about a duel? Win against me and I'll give this back to you and return the electricity back to the way it was." He smirked darkly and continued, "But if I win…well, let's just say that your company might not be running for much longer."

"Are you threatening me Schroider?" Kaiba said painfully low.

"Oh believe me Kaiba, it's not a threat. _It's a promise_." He pocketed the small device he'd been holding and crossed his arms. "Well? Is it a deal? Or is the mighty 'Kaibaman' too scared?" he taunted. If Kaiba could glare any harder, he would.

"Hn. Don't make me laugh." Kaiba walked over to the opposite side of the dueling arena and hopped up onto the platform, cheers sounding wildly by kids excited to witness 'Kaibaman' duel up-close. "The sheer thought of me being even remotely intimidated by someone like you is absurd."

"Don't get too cocky yet Kaiba. The duel hasn't even begun yet." Siegfried warned. Kaiba smirked.

"Fine. If you're itching to lose that bad, let's get started already." He punched in a short code on the right screen to change his side of the duel arena from "computer" to "duelist" mode.

"You better win against this pink-haired weirdo, Kaiba!" Jounouchi howled above the cheering.

"Beat him quick!" Yami added. Kaiba's smirk grew at that, even if just a little.

"Isn't it funny, Kaiba?" Siegfried began. "How such a small device can cause you such a large amount of trouble? Ironic, isn't it?" That caused Kaiba to ask a question that had been on his mind for some time now.

"How did you even manage to get past my security systems and screw around with the electricity? I changed all of the codes as soon as I discovered the thumb drive went missing."

"Heh. But in that short amount of time that you were unaware, a virus could easily slip its way into the system." Kaiba furrowed his eyebrows. Even if that was the case, he should have found out about it if it was there…

Siegfried continued, "It's especially deadly if that virus was disguised as a file essential to the function of the system. Then it would be able to laze about unharmed; stealing information that was required to hack into the computer, such as passwords for example…" Kaiba frowned heavily.

"Why you son of a-"

"Now, now Kaiba. Watch your language in front of all of these children. You wouldn't want to do something you'd regret, would you? You are their idol after all." Kaiba gritted his teeth. Siegfried would pay for this. He would pay big time.

"Enough!" Kaiba yelled as he attempted to regain his composure. "It's time to duel Siegfried! I'll go first!"

Siegfried sneered at Kaiba like he really believed he had a chance against him. What an idiot.

"I draw!"

xxXxx

The room was thick with tension as the final monster on Siegfried's field was destroyed, leaving it completely exposed. The once flamboyant male was now silent as he hunched over on his arms, defeated. The crowd remained quiet as they awaited the final move to be made. Kaiba stood proud and confident behind his Blue Eyes White Dragon and Kaiser Glider, as he did nearly the entire duel.

"You may as well give in Siegfried."

The pink-haired man said nothing in response to the statement. Kaiba shrugged. "Suit yourself. I've already attacked with both of my monsters, so I place one card face down and end my turn." he said, his declaration followed by a round of cheering.

At first, Siegfried didn't move. But after a few moments, once the cheering had died down, he finally lifted himself up and looked at Kaiba with raw anger.

"You've got them all fooled don't you?" Kaiba raised an eyebrow.

"What are you rambling on about now?"

"You've tricked them all into believing you're some kind of high and mighty hero! That you really think that justice will always prevail and the good guys always win when in reality you know that things never work like that!" he yelled.

"Cut the crap Schroider."

"Why? Because you don't want them to know the truth? That you're nothing but an evil man only posing as the hero?"

Cries of astonishment and horror resonated from the audience, shocked that someone would say such a thing. Kaiba half-lidded his eyes in annoyance.

"Is that the scapegoat you're going to try and use? Accusing me of being evil?"

"Because it's true! What else could you call what you did to me!?" Kaiba raised his eyebrows. What he did to him?

"And what exactly did I do to you?"

"You know what you did!"

"If I did, would I be asking?" Kaiba condescended similar to the way Siegfried had before their duel. He loosely wondered if that blood vessel on Siegfried's head was going to pop. Maybe if he was lucky the man would have an aneurysm.

"You can't possibly tell me you don't remember what you did to me on that day five years ago! That day that caused me so much distressed these passed years; the day that caused me to become a rival to KaibaCorp!" Kaiba folded his arms over his chest and waited. He could tell that this was going to be good.

"For so many years, Schroider Corp and KaibaCorp worked in partnership with each other, back when your father, Gozaburo Kaiba, owned the company. They worked as one, making deals with others together. Then, suddenly, KaibaCorp cut all ties with Schroider Corp out of nowhere with Gozaburo's death following shortly after. My father was devastated. His only business partner at the time passed away with his adolescent son taking over."

"Our business went downhill, and soon we went bankrupt. My father couldn't take the stress and he passed on as well from a stroke. I, being the only legible heir, had to take over afterward. I needed to find a way to get out of KaibaCorp's shadow. So, I took an entirely different direction to the weapon industry and decided to instead make Schroider Corp a toy company. I'd heard about Duel Monsters and worked to design a machine that would make the monsters on the cards appear in real life. I'd finally finished my prototype of the holographic device and had planned to showcase it to Industrial Illusions, but when I got there you were already there with your own holographic machine! I worked so hard to get out of your shadow only to be thrown back!"

"I was overwhelmed. I was shocked. I was angry! I ditched my machine and gave up completely. I started drinking, doing drugs, anything that would get my mind away from you! I was disgusted with myself. I'd turned from a success to a miserable catastrophe. I didn't want that. I couldn't live with that. So, I sobered up and became your rival! I rebuilt my design with some improvements and started selling it in Europe. It was an instant sensation considering how much less it costs compared to KaibaCorp's! Still, it wasn't nearly as popular."

"That's why I'm here! I want my revenge! Revenge for my father! For ruining my life!"

Siegfried breathed heavily once he finally finished, clearly upset. The audience, including Jounouchi, Yami, and Kisara remained silent in shock. Kaiba stood stone-faced like he had throughout the entire rant and said, "Look Schroider, I didn't ask for your life story." Siegfred growled.

"Don't you feel any kind of remorse for what you've done!?"

"No. Not even a little." Kaiba answered truthfully. "I don't see why I should have any regret for the decisions that I made. It's not my fault you were too slow in building you're machine. Nor is it my fault that you moved into the toy industry as I did. It's time to move on Siegfried! Stop acting like a petulant child who couldn't have their way!"

Siegfried snarled, "You just don't understand at all do you?" Kaiba ignored the question.

"Make your move Schroider!"

"Fine then!" Siegfried yelled. He drew a card and looked at it, frowning in plain disappointment.

"What's the matter? Didn't draw the card you wanted?" Kaiba taunted. Siegfried frowned.

"I end my turn." he stated painfully.

"Hn. This is over." Kaiba said. He drew a card, but didn't even bother to look at it. "Blue Eyes! Attack his life points directly and end this!" he ordered. The white beast complied with a roar and a ray of white light came pouring out of its mouth straight toward Siegfried. He let out a howl of anger and his life points dropped down to zero.

xxXxx

"Siegfried von Schroider, you are being arrested for first degree misdemeanor and theft."

Kaiba watched outside of the gates of "Kaibaland" as Siegfried was handcuffed by a police officer.

Finally, it was over. He'd gotten the thumb drive back and all of the power had been restored to the "KaibaDome". Turns out the missing fuses had been taken by Siegfried as well, the crook.

Siegfried was being hauled off toward a police car when he abruptly turned around toward Kaiba and yelled, "Don't think this is over Kaiba! I'll never stop in my quest for revenge until I've succeeded! Do you hear me!? I'll get back at you even if it's the last thing I do!"

Kaiba was tempted to say a sarcastic remark back at him, but voted against it. That would probably only cause more conversation to ensue, which was something he really didn't want. He was surprised when he heard a familiar voice behind him though.

"You know, you're really starting to piss me off."

Kaiba turned around and saw Yami leaning against the gate with his arms crossed.

"What was that?"

"You heard me." Yami said, pushing off of the gate and walking closer. Kaiba raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing. "You can't stand your inabilities and your own flaws so you just push off all of the blame on someone else instead of taking it yourself when you know you should. And that pisses me off."

"Quiet! You don't understand at all! No one does!" Siegfried shouted.

"How the hell is dwelling on the past supposed to make anything better?" Yami asked, ignoring the proclamation. "If anything, it'll only hinder your ability to make a better future! You're stuck on rewind, Siegfried. It's time to press play, don't you think?" Siegfried looked at the teen irresolutely.

"But if I had only gotten there first! Then _I_ could have showcased my device! Then _I_ could have been a raging success!"

The corner of Yami's lips lifted for a brief moment before he said, "'It's in the past. You can go on and on with 'if's' and 'could have's' but that won't change what has already happened. The only thing to do now is to move forward and look towards the future in hopes that it will be bright'!"

Kaiba blinked, recognizing the quote instantly. He looked back over at Siegfried who simply stared off into the distance with a look of defeat. The officer still holding onto his arms finally heaved the man in the other direction and into the car.

He watched the black and white vehicle take off, glad that it was over. He hoped he'd never see the man again after this, but knowing his luck that would be just too good to be true. He turned to Yami and couldn't stop a small smirk from gracing his face.

"Really?" he asked.

"Really what?"

Kaiba shook his head. "I can't believe that of all the things you could have said to him, you would say that clichéd line from "Kaibaman"."

Yami grinned at him. "It may be a 'clichéd line', but it's one with a good point. Don't you think?"

Kaiba snorted. "Whatever." he huffed.

Yami turned on his heel and sent Kaiba a sly look, boasting, "Well, now that we're finally out of there, I can start taking advantage of the free rides I was promised."

Kaiba rolled his eyes.

"I think I'll start with the "Blue Blaze!" he said.

Kaiba's smile grew and couldn't help himself from saying, "'Must be this tall to ride'.", imitating the cardboard cutout of himself that stood in front of the coaster.

"I am that tall!" Yami shouted.

"Your hair doesn't count."

* * *

Classic, classic corny Yami.

Stupid Siegfried! Er…Zigfried! Whatever! Doesn't matter! The point is: you are estupido!

Hey, where is Mokuba exactly? O.o I guess he was doing something else? Sure, we'll go with that.

I know, I know, the random Siegfried is kinda…well…random. But oh well!

Please tell me the pros and cons of my story so far! I'd really love to know!

Thanks for reading!


	15. On A Mission

Oh. My-gawd. It's been two whole weeks and I'm just now posting the next chappy. D:

I so sorry!

So this chapter marks the beginning of the REAL plot to this story. I know, I know. "It's been 14 chapters already Hiita-chan, what do you mean **NOW** is the start of the real plot?" Patience my little Kumquats. A good story builds up!

Right?

Please tell me I'm right.

It might not seem like much, but the next few chapters are going to be essential to the story! Essential! I think! I dunno…I mean I have the story planned out and everything, but it keeps changing. X3

Well, I think I've talked enough, on with the story!

Enjoy! ;3

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Kaiba glared angrily out of the tinted window of his limousine at the bright ball of light that seemed to float in mid-air above him. The sphere of rapid oxidation was a deceitful lie in his eyes at the moment; the rays that shone down from it provided no warmth whatsoever to make the freezing chills of the December air more bearable. He shivered a little as he waited for the automobile's heater to thaw him. Finally, he tore his eyes away from the sky, blinking rapidly to try and make the colored spots in his vision go away. Once the blotches that obstructed his sight had subsided, he peered back through the window and saw the familiar graffitied buildings that he'd come accustomed to viewing on his way home every day, his eyes grazing lazily over the artwork.

It was rather early for the young CEO to be going home. He rarely saw the sun let alone so high in the sky as he was driven to his house from KaibaCorp. But this particular day was different. It was Sunday, and he had promised Mokuba that he would take him shopping, something he hadn't done in a while. It felt strange for him to leave work so early; it was only about noon he discovered after glancing at his phone. It was almost pointless of him to have even gone, but still and yet he found it necessary to check up on everything in person just in case there was an employee that needed firing. Turns out that there wasn't, surprisingly, but you could never be too sure.

Once the limousine had finally come to a stop in front of his large, extravagant mansion Kaiba shoved the passenger door open, the harsh winds of late fall scraping against his face. He stepped out of the vehicle, slamming the door behind him, and made his way to the front door. Hopping up the steps that led to the set of double doors, he nodded at the two men wrapped in layers of winter clothes that stood guarding the doors.

"Sir." The one on the right said as they pushed the doors open and stepped out of the way.

Like a mother to her child, the warmth inside caressed Kaiba in such a soothing way he gave a hum of gratitude. Thank God for heaters.

After he took a moment to bathe in the bliss that was technology, he finally bent down to remove his expensive leather Oxfords. As he reached down to grip the shoe, he noticed a pair of black boots placed neatly in the corner of the wall and the step that lead to the wooden floors. Kaiba blinked, not recognizing the boots as Mokuba's. Finally, he took his shoes off and headed to his living room to investigate, though he had a pretty solid idea of who they belonged to. He didn't even bother to take his heavy, tan trench coat. He was about to leave again anyway.

Kaiba reached the end of the hallway and heard voices coming from behind the doors. He pushed the doors open like he had many times before, and walked in.

"NI-SAMAAA!" a familiar raven-haired boy yelled.

Kaiba raised his eyebrows at the sudden exclamation. He had anticipated something like that from Mokuba, but he didn't sound very happy when he said it. The boy jumped up from the couch where Kaiba noticed another person was sitting as well. Their eyes met, deep red jewels piercing into blue. Kaiba looked away, not needing to look at them any longer to know who it was that sat there on the couch. He turned his attention to Mokuba who had made it across the room and was currently yanking on Kaiba's coat in a fit.

"Ni-sama! Yami! Yami's leaving! He's leaving forever!"

Kaiba's eyes widened ever-so-slightly and his breath caught in his throat as he looked back over at the teen. Leaving? Forever? When did this happen? Why was he just now being informed about this? Yami smiled toward Mokuba with a please-calm-down-it's-really-not-that-serious look on his face.

"Mokuba. It's only for two weeks." he clarified.

"That's two weeks too long!" the boy cried.

Yami let out a sigh and Kaiba let out one of his own as well.

"Alright, enough Mokuba. You're going to rip a hole in my coat." Kaiba said, prying the boy's fingers from the thick cloth of his coat.

"But Ni-sama! He's going to be gone for a whole two weeks!"

"I think you'll survive."

"But what am I supposed to do for two weeks?"

"You'll figure it out."

Mokuba crossed his arms and pouted sadly. Kaiba shook his head.

"When are you leaving?" he asked as casually as he could, though he was a bit antsy to know.

"In about a week. On the 22nd." Yami answered.

"Do you _have_ to go?" Mokuba asked, though Kaiba was sure he knew what the answer was.

"Yes, Mokuba. I _have_ to go." Yami said with a chuckle. Mokuba frowned again, as if he had been anticipating a different answer. He suddenly perked up again as Kaiba practically saw an idea form in his head.

"Well, then you have to hang out with me a whole bunch until then! Deal?" Yami smiled, amused.

"_Oookay_ Mokuba. Deal."

"Great! Let's start right now! You can come with me and Ni-sama to go shopping!"

"Hm…"

"Come on! It'll be fuuuun~" the boy pressed. "That's okay with you, right Ni-sama?"

Kaiba looked at Mokuba, his big eyes pleading for a yes. He waited a few moments to answer. He actually didn't mind the teen tagging along, but he didn't want to make it seem like he encouraged it.

"I suppose." he answered.

"Then it's settled!" Mokuba cheered. "You're coming with us!" A sudden rumble came from his abdomen, making him jump and instantly pull his hands over his stomach.

"Maybe we should eat first." Kaiba suggested.

xxXxx

"So where are you going anyway?"

Kaiba looked up at Mokuba who sat next to him in the booth that three of them were sitting at. When he registered what the question was and who it was directed to, he turned his head to Yami for the answer.

"America." Yami replied, taking a sip of what was left of his soda.

"Ooh, neat. Who are you visiting?"

"My mom, my brother, and my grandfather." he said after taking another sip.

"They all live in America? Then…you live with your dad here?" Mokuba asked after a few moments of hesitation, unsure whether he had guessed right or not. Kaiba looked at Mokuba as a warning to not ask such personal questions.

"Yup." Yami answered. "They got a divorce when I was…what was I?" Yami looked up as he thought. "Ten I think. Then my mom moved to America to take care of her father. All that custody war stuff happened, and my mom got my brother and my father got me." he finished.

"Aw, why'd they get a divorce and separate you from your brother?" Mokuba asked, though it seemed more like to himself then to Yami.

"Mokuba." Kaiba warned him. Apparently he couldn't take a hint.

"Hm…I don't really know." Yami said, tapping his chin with his index finger. "I guess they didn't like each other anymore. And yeah, it kind of sucks that he lives so far away, but I do get to see them at least." he shrugged. "I guess things happen for a reason. If they hadn't of gotten a divorce I would have probably had to move to America too, and I wouldn't have met you guys." Yami said with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess that's true." Mokuba agreed, smiling back. All of a sudden his eyes widened and he said, "Oh! Ni-sama! Did you invite Yami to that business party thing that Pegasus planned?"

Oh yeah. That was a thing, wasn't it? And Kaiba was expected to go, wasn't he?

"No." Kaiba stated, leaving out the fact that he had completely forgotten about the occasion.

"Why not? Pegasus said that he was welcomed to come since he helped out at the Grand Opening." Mokuba smirked. "You remember that, don't you?"

"Yes, Mokuba. I remember." Kaiba said, hearing the slyness in the boy's voice.

"…party?" Yami questioned.

"Yeah!" Mokuba exclaimed, getting the attention of a few people near them which caused Kaiba to involuntarily push his sunglasses up to make sure no one could see his eyes. Noticing this, Mokuba said a bit quieter, "It's a holiday party. You get to dress up all fancy and eat extravagant food and stuff. It'd be fun."

"Mm…I don't know if I'd want to attend that kind of thing." Yami answered.

"Sure you would! Wouldn't he Ni-sama?" Kaiba blinked in Mokuba's direction.

"…Why would I know that?" Mokuba sighed.

"This is the part where you say 'yes', Ni-sama." Kaiba rolled his eyes behind his shades. "Don't you want Yami to go?"

Did Kaiba want the midget to come? The immediate answer that formed in his mind was "yes", and it was true. Having Yami there might actually make the gathering not seem so bad. Somehow, any situation seemed so much better if you added Yami to the equation. He'd been having that feeling for a while now, and had finally come to terms with it. He admitted it, he liked Yami. And he didn't see anything wrong with not hating the guy like he did nearly everyone else that wasn't Mokuba. He dared say that he even considered Yami as his friend. And there was nothing wrong with wanting your friend to come with you to a horrible party that you dreaded going to with every fiber of your being to make it seem better, right? But Kaiba would never actually say that.

"He can come if he wants, but I'm not going to beg him." was all Kaiba said. Mokuba's face lit up into a big grin in a way that made Kaiba a little worried.

Mokuba turned to Yami across the table and said excitedly, "That's 'Yes I really want him to go but I'm too embarrassed to admit it' in Kaiba-talk."

"MOKUBA!" Kaiba shouted horrified, uncrossing his arms from over his chest. Not only was he shocked that Mokuba was able to decipher what he said so accurately, but he was more shocked that he had actually said it out loud.

"See?" Mokuba said, pointing to Kaiba with his thumb. Yami laughed.

"_Well_, Kaiba, I had no idea you wanted me to go so _badly_." the teen said dramatically. "I suppose I have no other choice than to go, huh?"

"Hn." Kaiba re-crossed his arms. "I couldn't possibly care less whether you went or not." he said bitterly.

"Oh come on, Ni-sama. Don't be mean."

"Well don't I feel special." Yami said in a joking way. He took a final sip of his soda, then said, "You know, the more I think about it, the more I think I will go. It might make a good story for my little brother."

"That's the spirit!" Mokuba encouraged.

"Now…maybe we should get out of here. I think we've attracted a bit of unwanted attention." Yami whispered, looking side to side. Kaiba took a moment to look around as well and saw quite a few people looking in their direction. Crap.

"Yeah, maybe…"

xxXxx

"Mission objective?"

"Successfully acquire a new pair of shoes without having Mr. Kaiba's identity discovered."

"Risks?"

"Risks include screaming girls, mobs of crazed fans, and the potential of being glomped."

"Chance of survival?"

"Chance of survival 58%."

"Estimated time limit?"

"Depending on how careful we are, time limit may range from 30 to 90 minutes."

"Alright then!" Mokuba shouted, raising his fist to the sky. "There's no time to lose!" Yami laughed.

"Affirmative!" he said in response with a salute.

"Alright, enough. Don't attract attention." Kaiba said, rolling his eyes. Mokuba settled down as they all walking through the front entrance of "Domino City Mall". Past the large, glass front doors, an abundance of sights and sounds awaited. Crowds of people were gathered, whether it was a group of teenage friends or family having a get together, it almost seemed like the entire city of Domino was there. Kaiba tugged at his gray thermal hat.

"So, where to first?" Yami asked, turning to face Kaiba and Mokuba as he removed his light brown gloves and stuffed them into his unzipped, black coat. Mokuba did the same with his dark blue mittens.

"Let's go to Foot Locker!" Mokuba said to Kaiba, then proceeding to lead the way. Kaiba followed without a word, not particularly caring as long as they could get in and out quickly. They all walked past a string of stores and Kaiba glanced at the displays every so often, seeing either a terribly skimpy outfit on a mannequin, or an outfit that appeared to be thrown together at the last minute with strange patterns and colors that didn't seem to go together very well, but would probably be considered some kind of "fashion statement". He noticed Yami pause for a moment to browse through glass windows into a store, then continue walking. His curiosity getting the better of him, Kaiba also peeked into the store, taking note of the dim lighting and punk vibe it radiated. He could hear music blasting loudly from the store, the noise sounding something like techno music on steroids. Kaiba shrugged, not really understanding why anyone would want to make their ears bleed with such loud mechanical racket.

Kaiba heard a gasp come from in front of him and turned his head to see what had happened, but was suddenly, and violently, yanked down closer to the ground behind a plastic plant before he had even turned his head completely.

"OW. Mokuba, what the hell?" he questioned, seeing that it was his younger brother who had done the yanking. Yami blinked at the two of them as he stood beside the plant.

"Sh!" Mokuba warned, placing his index finger in front of his mouth. Kaiba frowned, then looked in the direction that Mokuba was to see what exactly they were hiding from. He saw a man walking by talking loudly on his cell phone.

"Yeah! And you know what I told him? That that wasn't what his mom said last night!"

Kaiba watched the man as he walked past them and laughed obnoxiously at his own bad joke. He looked back at Mokuba and said, "…What, Mokuba?"

"He seemed too suspicious! I think he was on to us!" the boy whispered, still staring in the direction the man had walked. Kaiba sighed and stood back up, dusting off his coat.

"Okay, maybe you're taking this 'mission' thing a little too serious, Mokuba." Yami said, bending down to speak eye-level to the still crouching Mokuba.

"Am I?" Mokuba stood as well. "Sorry." he said, smiling impishly. Kaiba rolled his eyes and began walking again, this time with Mokuba and Yami trailing him.

Once they made it to "Foot Locker", Mokuba wasted no time in hunting for a pair of shoes to suffice him. He chatted with Yami quite a bit as he decided, and Kaiba simply leaned against the wall with his arms folded as he waited. Somehow his eyes ended up wandering over to Yami as he did so. He observed as the teen's large diamond-shaped eyes scanned through the massive amount of shoes that were displayed before them. His thick eyelashes swept across his cheeks as his eyes fluttered closed and open in an almost graceful way. There was still a hint of a pink tint on his nose and ears from being exposed to the harsh autumn air. Yami leaned forward as he took a closer look at a particular shoe, causing Kaiba eyes to trail down at his-

Kaiba immediately looked in the other direction. Nope. He did not just do that. He did **not** just take a glance at Yami's ass. Nopenopenopenopenope.

And yet, he wasn't at all disturbed at the thought that he had…

Slowly, Kaiba looked back over.

'Damn.'

Yami stood up straight again, and still, Kaiba kept looking. No shame.

When Yami started turning around, Kaiba figured he should probably stop looking, but instead of looking completely away like he had planned, he ended up looking back up at Yami's face and was instantly glued to it again. Yami seemed to notice and stared back at him.

…

"What?" he asked, obviously a bit confused. Thinking quickly, Kaiba asked about the very first thing he noticed about Yami when he saw him.

"Why do you style your hair like that?"

Yami blinked, then said, "What's wrong with my hair?"

"It was just a question."

"Well, I don't style it like this. It's natural."

…

…

"No it's not." Mokuba piped up, hearing the statement.

"Yes it is. It runs in the family." Yami confirmed, looking at him.

"You poor thing." Kaiba said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yami pouted. Mokuba laughed and picked up a shoe, inspected it, then set it back down.

"Will you pick something already Mokuba?" Kaiba pressed. They had already been in the store for over forty minutes.

"These things take tiiiime, Ni-sama." Mokuba informed.

"Well try to take a little less time, would you?"

"Alright, alright. I've decided."

"Thank God."

Mokuba stuck his tongue out at Kaiba and picked up a pair of gray Nike Air Jordan 1's. After purchasing the shoes, Mokuba dragged Yami and Kaiba around to a bunch of other stores, one of which was the store Kaiba had seen Yami looking at. There, Mokuba wanted to get some sort of spiked, black dog collar, which Kaiba immediately refused to let him have. After a few minutes of moping, Mokuba finally agreed to leave.

The three of them started walking by the food court, where Mokuba got some ice cream. As they were leaving, a loud noise coming from behind them caught Kaiba's attention.

"You retard! Why don't you back to the special ed. classes you came from and stop taking up space for all the normal people? Look at you! I bet you don't even know what I'm saying!"

Some slobbish-looking woman/creature was yelling a slew of insults at some poor disabled kid who sat silent in a wheel chair. The girl looked like someone had taken a jug and started pouring into her into her clothes but forgot to say "when". Her voice sounded like an air horn and she spoke with her mouth filled with fries. Overall, she was disgusting.

Kaiba turned to leave, no longer feeling like torturing his eyes by looking in that direction, but Yami walked by him and toward the woman.

"Yami?" Mokuba asked quietly.

Yami didn't seem to hear the boy, and strode all the way over to the woman.

"Can I help you?" she honked at him, stuffing more fries into her mouth.

"You do realize that that could happen to any of us, right?" he questioned solemnly.

"Yeah, so? I have a mouth to talk, and that's what I'm gunna do!" Yami raised his head up a little, looking at her from a somewhat higher angle.

"You also have a mouth to eat, but it seems you've abused that privilege as well, doesn't it?"

The woman's eyes went wide and her mouth was ajar, crumbs starting to fall out. Kaiba heard Mokuba snort, but he covered his mouth to muffle it. Yami spun to walk away from the woman, but turned his head to look at her before he left and said, "By the way, you should probably wipe that ketchup off of your chin." She quickly lifted her free hand up to her face and began viciously rubbing the spot she thought the left over condiment was located. "No, no. Your other chin."

Yami walked away, not giving her another look. "Let's go." he said as he passed Mokuba and Kaiba, who followed.

The three of them stopped by a few more stores, upon Mokuba's request, before finally leaving the mall. By the time they had gotten out of the building, they were carrying at least two bags each.

"Geez Mokuba. Did you really need all this stuff?" Yami asked as they got into the limousine. Mokuba shrugged and Yami shook his head.

"I still can't believe you said that to that woman." Mokuba stated with a grin.

"What woman?" Yami asked as the vehicle began moving.

"At the food court!"

"Oh yeah…"

"That was hilarious! You don't think you took it too far, do you?" Yami shrugged.

"She deserved it."

"Yeah, but still." Mokuba said with a chuckle. Kaiba removed the sunglasses from his face now that he wasn't in any danger of being discovered. He rubbed the spot that they had been perched on his nose. He was also a bit shocked that Yami would way something like that as well, but the teen seemed to be full of surprises.

The three of them rode in comfortable silence until they got to where Kaiba assumed Yami's house was located. The limo came to a stop near a few different moderately sized homes, any of which Kaiba could see the teen living in.

"I'll see you later Yami!" Mokuba said unnecessarily loud.

"Yeah, see you Mokuba." Yami replied. He turned to Kaiba before opening his passenger door and looked at him for a moment without saying anything, which made Kaiba feel a little uncomfortable, then said, "So I can come to the party thing, right?" Kaiba thought carefully on how to word what he wanted to say before speaking.

"I suppose."

For some reason, those two words made a large smile grace Yami's face making Kaiba almost want to smile as well.

"Then I'll see you there!" he said, hopping out of the automobile. He gave Kaiba one last look before closing the door. Kaiba watched as Yami walked up to the house to his very left, a two story brick house with a blue roof and a matching front door and garage door. The limo began moving again after Yami went inside, and Kaiba felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked next to him at Mokuba, who had a cunning smile on his face.

"A-" he began.

"Shut up, Mokuba."

* * *

Whoopsie! Did I make a LittleKuriboh reference?

I tried so hard not to, but I just couldn't help myself! :D

Please let me know what you think! Reviews jus' mak meh so dern happeh!

Thanks for reading!


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